This paper reconsiders the well known comparison of equilibrium entry levels into a Cournot industry under free entry and under the two commonly used socially optimal schemes. Allowing for the possibility of increasing returns to scale in production, this paper generalizes the conclusion of [Mankiw and Whinston, Rand J. 1986], that free entry yields more …rms than the second-best socially optim...

This paper explores the impact of memory in Cournot oligopolies where firms learn through imitation of success as suggested in Alchian (1950) and modeled in Vega-Redondo (1997). As long as memory includes at least one period, the long-run outcome corresponds to any quantity between the Cournot one and the Walras one. The (evolutionary) stability of the walrasian outcome relies on inter-firm com...

Bargaining is a basic game in economic practice. Cournot duopoly game is an important model in bargaining theory and is well studied in the literatures. Recently, asymmetry information [20] and incomplete information [19], limited individual rationality [2] and slightly altruistic equilibrium [10] are introduced into bargaining theory. And computational game theory also comes into being a new h...

A game of simultaneous free entry and sequential output choices is analyzed. Firms enter simultaneously in stage 1 by paying a fixed cost, and they choose output levels sequentially in subsequent stages. At the subgame-perfect equilibrium of the game, the production level of a firm is decreasing with the order of the firm in the decision-making. The firm that is the last to choose output produc...

This paper analyses the impact of changes in product market competition on the marginal cost of public funds (MCPF) and public goods supply when distortionary commodity taxes are used to raise revenue. First, less competition (measured by a switch from Bertrand to Cournot conduct, or a decrease in the elasticity of demand) does not necessarily raise the MPCF. Second, even if it does, optimal pu...

Recent literature shows that learning in oligopoly games might in the long run result in the Cournot or in the Walras equilibrium. Which outcome is achieved seems to depend on the underlying learning dynamics. This paper analyzes the forces behind the learning mechanisms determining the long run outcome. Apart from the fact that there is a difference between social and individual learning, the ...

In standardWalrasian macro-finance models, pecuniary externalities such as fire sales lead to overinvestment in illiquid assets or underprovision of liquidity. We investigate whether imperfect competition (Cournot) improves welfare through internalizing the externality and find that this is far from guaranteed. In a standard model of liquidity shocks, when liquidity is sufficiently scarce, Cour...

A free entry model with linear costs is considered where firms first choose their entry time and then compete in the market according to the resulting timing decisions. Multiple equilibria arise allowing for infinitely many industry output configurations encompassing one limit-output dominant firm and the Cournot equilibrium with free entry as extreme cases. Sequential entry is never observed. ...

We analyze whether different learning abilities of firms with respect to general equilibrium effects lead to different levels of unemployment. We consider a general equilibrium model where firms in one sector compete à la Cournot and a real wage rigidity leads to unemployment. If firms consider only partial equilibrium effects when choosing quantities, the observation of general equilibrium fee...

This paper introduces a class of non-additive anonymous games where agents are assumed to be uncertain (in the sense of Knight) about opponents’ strategies and about the initial distribution over players’ characteristics in the game. We model uncertainty by non-additive measures or capacities and prove the Cournot-Nash equilibrium existence theorem for this class of games. Equilibrium distribut...