We compare the number of active firms, i.e. the number of firms producing a positive quantity, in equilibrium across four different models of oligopoly: Cournot and Bertrand with homogeneous or differentiated goods. We concentrate on the linear demand structure with constant marginal but asymmetric costs. (With symmetric costs, the results trivialize to all firms active or all firms inactive.) ...

Using a model of substitutable goods I determine generic conditions on tastes which guarantee that fixed prices are not optimal: the fully optimal tariff includes lotteries. That is, a profit maximising seller would employ a haggling strategy. We show that the fully optimal selling strategy in a class of cases requires a seller to not allow themselves to focus on one good but to remain haggling...

We consider an incumbent who operates in two independent markets and has private information about his production cost. In one of the markets, there is a potential entrant o¤ering a di¤erentiated product. The most reasonable perfect bayesian equilibrium is either the least cost separating equilibrium or the pooling equilibrium where both types of incumbents set the low cost monopoly prices. The...

We study duopolistic competition in a differentiated market with firms setting prices and quantities, without explicitly imposing market clearing. Unlike the commonly adopted assumption of profit maximizing firms, we assume firm behavior to be shaped by a Darwinian dynamic: the less fitter firm imitates the fitter firm and occasionally firms may experiment with a random price and/or quantity. O...

Spain is one of the largest seafood markets in Europe and the world. Seafood consumption has traditionally been very high in Spain; in 2005, for instance, around 36.7 kg per capita were consumed (MAPA, several years). However, little attention has been paid to the market and how the different levels of the market chain interact. This paper uses weekly data to analyse the price transmission elas...

The paper investigates the differences between small, medium-sized and large firms regarding their performance in the introduction of new products and processes. After a review of the relevant literature, two models are proposed and tested in search for different business strategies and innovation inputs connected to product and process innovations. The empirical analysis uses innovation survey...

We run a regression discontinuity design analysis to document the causal effect of increasing buyers’ discretion on procurement outcomes in a large database for public works in Italy. Works with a value above a given threshold have to be awarded through an open auction. Works below this threshold can be more easily awarded through a restricted auction, where the buyer has some discretion in ter...

The US industrial sector displays heterogeneity among firms on the basis of their size: smaller firms exhibit a higher profit rate, lower survival probability and difficulty in accessing the capital market. A simple theoretical model that generates these features based on private information regarding managerial actions at firm-level production is developed and tested. Using a large panel of pu...

Theoretical studies on the e¤ect of life settlement market on consumer welfare show that it crucially depend on the reasons for the lapsation of life insurance policies: if lapsation is purely due to the loss of bequest motives by the policyholders, then life settlement is shown to be detrimental to consumer welfare in equilibrium; on the other hand, if lapsation results from liquidity shocks, ...

This paper examines a three-stage model of divisionalization where, first, two parent firms create independent units, second, the parent firms allocate cost reduction levels over these units, and third, the resulting units compete in a Cournot market given their current costs of production. The introduction of the cost reduction phase is shown to reduce the incentives toward divisionalization s...