Alternative market structures are distinguishable by the degree of parallel action exhibited by producers. We show that the correlation between output levels varies systematically with the degree of interdependence among firms, and establish an ordering among alternative behavioral hypotheses (Cournot, Stackelberg, Edgeworth/Bertrand, collusion, and perfect competition). Because the ordering is...

Market definition plays a key role in competition analysis and has often proved controversial. However, it is merely a means to an end, the real issue being to establish whether or not firms have significant market power, i.e. the power to increase prices. This objective is rather different to the traditional neo-classical economic view of a market. The introduction of the SSNIP test in the US ...

Recently, scholars working in the field of modern Austrian economics have wondered about what this literature might offer for an understanding of the nature of modern business organizations (for example, Foss 1994, 1997b; Sautet 1998; Mathews 1998). In this article, we examine the received literature on firms and strategies and find that Austrian economics has important contributions to make in...

Transmission constraints in electric networks can limit competition and create pockets of local market power. The policy response to this reality includes many elements ranging from special contracting arrangements to divestiture of assets. Although a full analysis of the impacts of local market power is complex and context specific, there are some general principles that can guide the discussion.

This paper introduced the application of game theory in electricity power market. Moreover, the electricity pool model and the merit order dispatch method was introduced. In pool mode, participants are trying to maximize their benefit via competition with each other. Hence the market can be regarded as a non-cooperative game, especially, the electrical supply competition. Players (generators) c...

Currently, many socially responsible governments adopt economic incentives and deterrents to manage environmental impacts of electricity suppliers. Considering the Stackelberg leadership of the government, the government’s role in the competition of power plants in an electricity market is investigated. A one-population evolutionary game model of power plants is developed to study how their pro...

We measure the impact of increased health insurer competition on negotiated hospital prices using detailed 2004 California claims data. We develop a theoretical bargaining model to motivate our empirical analysis, and use the competitiveness of Kaiser Permanente, a large vertically integrated insurer, in a hospital’s market as a measure of insurer competition. We find that increasing competitio...

The number of specialists within dental health services has increased over the last few years. This raises the issue of how the services should be organized and funded. We describe the effect of one way of organizing the services, which is by relying on competition. In Norway, some oral specialists face real competition with general dental practitioners for the same patients (prosthetists, peri...