[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/saq/wpaper/5-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Myopic Oligopoly Pricing

Author

Listed:
  • Iwan Bos

    (Department of Organisation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Maastricht University)

  • Marco A. Marini

    (Department of Social Sciences and Economics, Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Riccardo D. Saulle

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova)

Abstract
This paper examines capacity-constrained oligopoly pricing with sellers who seek myopic improvements. We employ the Myopic Stable Set stability concept and establish the existence of a unique pure-strategy price solution for any given level of capacity. This solution is shown to coincide with the set of pure-strategy Nash equilibria when capacities are large or small. For an intermediate range of capacities, it predicts a price interval that includes the mixed-strategy support. This stability concept thus encompasses all Nash equilibria and offers a pure-strategy solution when there is none in Nash terms. In particular, it provides a behavioral rationale for different types of pricing dynamics, including real-world economic phenomena such as Edgeworth-like price cycles, price dispersion and supply shortages.

Suggested Citation

  • Iwan Bos & Marco A. Marini & Riccardo D. Saulle, 2021. "Myopic Oligopoly Pricing," Working Papers 5/21, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    • Handle: RePEc:saq:wpaper:5/21
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.diss.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/allegati/DiSSE_Bosetal_wp5_2021.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joao Montez & Nicolas Schutz, 2021. "All-Pay Oligopolies: Price Competition with Unobservable Inventory Choices [Extremal Equilibria of Oligopolistic Supergames]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(5), pages 2407-2438.
    2. Arieli, Itai & Young, H. Peyton, 2016. "Stochastic learning dynamics and speed of convergence in population games," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68715, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang & Juan Feng, 2011. "Cyclical Bid Adjustments in Search-Engine Advertising," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1703-1719, February.
    4. Jonathan Newton, 2018. "Evolutionary Game Theory: A Renaissance," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-67, May.
    5. Carlos Alós-Ferrer & Georg Kirchsteiger, 2010. "General equilibrium and the emergence of (non)market clearing trading institutions," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 44(3), pages 339-360, September.
    6. Thomas Demuynck & P. Jean‐Jacques Herings & Riccardo D. Saulle & Christian Seel, 2019. "The Myopic Stable Set for Social Environments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(1), pages 111-138, January.
    7. Tasnádi, Attila, 2020. "Production in advance versus production to order: Equilibrium and social surplus," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 11-18.
    8. Itai Arieli & H. Peyton Young, 2016. "Stochastic Learning Dynamics and Speed of Convergence in Population Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 627-676, March.
    9. de Roos, Nicolas, 2012. "Static models of the Edgeworth cycle," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 881-882.
    10. Beth Allen & Martin Hellwig, 1986. "Bertrand-Edgeworth Oligopoly in Large Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(2), pages 175-204.
    11. Alos-Ferrer, Carlos & Ania, Ana B. & Schenk-Hoppe, Klaus Reiner, 2000. "An Evolutionary Model of Bertrand Oligopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-19, October.
    12. Carlos Alós-Ferrer & Ana Ania, 2005. "The evolutionary stability of perfectly competitive behavior," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 26(3), pages 497-516, October.
    13. James W. Friedman, 1988. "On the Strategic Importance of Prices versus Quantities," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(4), pages 607-622, Winter.
    14. Dubey, Pradeep & Haimanko, Ori & Zapechelnyuk, Andriy, 2006. "Strategic complements and substitutes, and potential games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 77-94, January.
    15. Dixon, Huw David, 1992. "The Competitive Outcome as the Equilibrium in an Edgeworthian Price-Quantity Model," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(411), pages 301-309, March.
    16. Roos, Nicolas de & Smirnov, Vladimir, 2021. "Collusion, price dispersion, and fringe competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    17. Michael D. Noel, 2007. "Edgeworth Price Cycles: Evidence From The Toronto Retail Gasoline Market," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 69-92, March.
    18. Tasnadi, Attila, 2004. "Production in advance versus production to order," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 191-204, June.
    19. Thomas Demuynck & P. Jean-Jacques Herings & Riccardo D. Saulle & Christian Seel, 2019. "Bertrand competition with asymmetric costs: a solution in pure strategies," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 147-154, September.
    20. Levitan, Richard & Shubik, Martin, 1972. "Price Duopoly and Capacity Constraints," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 13(1), pages 111-122, February.
    21. Miguel A. Fonseca & Hans-Theo Normann, 2013. "Excess Capacity and Pricing in Bertrand-Edgeworth Markets: Experimental Evidence," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 169(2), pages 199-228, June.
    22. Friedman, James W. & Mezzetti, Claudio, 2001. "Learning in Games by Random Sampling," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 55-84, May.
    23. Zhongmin Wang, 2008. "Collusive Communication and Pricing Coordination in a Retail Gasoline Market," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 32(1), pages 35-52, February.
    24. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "Rationalizability, Learning, and Equilibrium in Games with Strategic Complementarities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(6), pages 1255-1277, November.
    25. Thomas Demuynck & P. Jean-Jacques Herings & Riccardo D. Saulle & Christian Seel, 2019. "Bertrand competition with asymmetric costs: a solution in pure strategies," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 147-154, September.
    26. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 1988. "A Theory of Dynamic Oligopoly, II: Price Competition, Kinked Demand Curves, and Edgeworth Cycles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(3), pages 571-599, May.
    27. Vives, Xavier, 1986. "Rationing rules and Bertrand-Edgeworth equilibria in large markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 113-116.
    28. Eckert, Andrew, 2003. "Retail price cycles and the presence of small firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 151-170, February.
    29. Brown-Kruse, Jamie, et al, 1994. "Bertrand-Edgeworth Competition in Experimental Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 343-372, March.
    30. Tasnadi, Attila, 1999. "Existence of pure strategy Nash equilibrium in Bertrand-Edgeworth oligopolies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 201-206, May.
    31. Osborne, Martin J. & Pitchik, Carolyn, 1986. "Price competition in a capacity-constrained duopoly," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 238-260, April.
    32. Øystein Foros & Frode Steen, 2013. "Vertical Control and Price Cycles in Gasoline Retailing," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 115(3), pages 640-661, July.
    33. Dindos, Martin & Mezzetti, Claudio, 2006. "Better-reply dynamics and global convergence to Nash equilibrium in aggregative games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 261-292, February.
    34. Dixon, Huw, 1990. "Bertrand-Edgeworth Equilibria when Firms Avoid Turning Customers Away," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 131-146, December.
    35. Huw Dixon, 2020. "Almost‐Maximization as a Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Static, Dynamic and Evolutionary Perspectives," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 56(2), pages 237-258, March.
    36. Michael D. Noel, 2007. "Edgeworth Price Cycles, Cost-Based Pricing, and Sticky Pricing in Retail Gasoline Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 324-334, May.
    37. David P. Myatt, 2019. "A Theory of Stable Price Dispersion," Economics Series Working Papers 873, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    38. Maskin, Eric, 1986. "The Existence of Equilibrium with Price-Setting Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 382-386, May.
    39. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    40. Melissa Linder, 2018. "Price cycles in the German retail gasoline market - Competition or collusion?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(1), pages 593-602.
    41. David M. Kreps & Jose A. Scheinkman, 1983. "Quantity Precommitment and Bertrand Competition Yield Cournot Outcomes," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 326-337, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Iwan Bos & Marco A. Marini, 2022. "Oligopoly Pricing: The Role of Firm Size and Number," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Edwards, Robert A. & Routledge, Robert R., 2022. "Information, Bertrand–Edgeworth competition and the law of one price," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iwan Bos & Marco A. Marini, 2022. "Oligopoly Pricing: The Role of Firm Size and Number," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Roy Chowdhury, Prabal, 2008. "Bertrand-Edgeworth equilibrium with a large number of firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 746-761, May.
    3. Prabal Roy Chowdhury, 2004. "Bertrand-Edgeworth equilibrium with a large number of firms," Discussion Papers 04-12, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    4. Prabal Roy Chowdhury, 2004. "Bertrand-Edgeworth equilibrium: Manipulable residual demand," Discussion Papers 04-15, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    5. Jacobs, Martin & Requate, Till, 2016. "Bertrand-Edgeworth markets with increasing marginal costs and voluntary trading: Experimental evidence," Economics Working Papers 2016-01, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    6. Tasnádi, Attila, 2001. "A Bertrand-Edgeworth-oligopóliumok. Irodalmi áttekintés [Bertrand-Edgeworth oligopolies - a survey of the literature]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1081-1092.
    7. Edwards, Robert A. & Routledge, Robert R., 2022. "Information, Bertrand–Edgeworth competition and the law of one price," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. García Díaz, Antón, 1998. "List princing and pure strategy outcomes in a bertrand edgeworth duopoly," UC3M Working papers. Economics 6089, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    9. repec:cte:werepe:we050902 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Tasnádi, Attila, 2020. "Production in advance versus production to order: Equilibrium and social surplus," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 11-18.
    11. Bos, Iwan & Vermeulen, Dries, 2021. "On pure-strategy Nash equilibria in price–quantity games," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    12. Jacobs, Martin & Requate, Till, 2016. "Demand rationing in Bertrand-Edgeworth markets with fixed capacities: An experiment," Economics Working Papers 2016-03, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    13. Jonathan Newton, 2018. "Evolutionary Game Theory: A Renaissance," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-67, May.
    14. Heywood, John S. & Li, Dongyang & Ye, Guangliang, 2023. "Private provision of price excludable public goods by rivals," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 291-307.
    15. García Díaz, Antón & Hernán González, Roberto & Kujal, Praveen, 2009. "List pricing and discounting in a Bertrand-Edgeworth duopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 719-727, November.
    16. Hirata Daisuke, 2009. "Asymmetric Bertrand-Edgeworth Oligopoly and Mergers," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, July.
    17. Isakower, Sean & Wang, Zhongmin, 2014. "A comparison of regular price cycles in gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 445-454.
    18. Tveito, Andreas, 2019. "Coordination and price leadership in an unregulated environment," Working Papers in Economics 4/19, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    19. David P. Byrne, Gordon W. Leslie, and Roger Ware, 2015. "How do Consumers Respond to Gasoline Price Cycles?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    20. Tasnadi, Attila, 2004. "Production in advance versus production to order," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 191-204, June.
    21. Allison, Blake A. & Lepore, Jason J., 2014. "Verifying payoff security in the mixed extension of discontinuous games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 291-303.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral IO; Bounded Rationality; Capacity Constraints; Oligopoly Pricing; Myopic Stable Set.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:saq:wpaper:5/21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Pierluigi Montalbano (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dtrosit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.