IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aif/journl/v4y2020i12p115-122.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Limit Pricing under Complete Information: A Theoretical Analysis of Mobile network Operators

Author

Listed:
  • Hillary Ekisa Nambanga

    (School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing, China)

Abstract

Limit pricing is a very interesting issue in industrial organization. This is a case where firms with market power, when faced with a threat of market entry, charge a very low price that is lower than their marginal cost for their products or services in order to prevent the entry of new potential competitors or prevent their smaller competitors from expanding their business. This they do to protect their market dominance. After successfully deterring entry, the incumbent firms then revert to charging higher prices. Previous theoretical studies show that this strategy is viable in the presence of information asymmetry. Competition Authorities and other regulatory agencies treat limit pricing as anti-competitive and illegal. This research paper theoretically analyses limit pricing among telecommunications companies by way of linear demand equations within an oligopoly framework involving one dominant incumbent and fringe firms under complete information. The analysis proves that dominant firms can use their market power to engage in limit pricing in the absence of information asymmetry concerning the true operating costs among the incumbents. This finding is of great help to Competition Authorities and other policy makers in ensuring that dominant firms do not abuse their market power. This ensures fair competition among all the market players irrespective of their market share.

Suggested Citation

  • Hillary Ekisa Nambanga, 2020. "Limit Pricing under Complete Information: A Theoretical Analysis of Mobile network Operators," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 4(12), pages 115-122.
    • Handle: RePEc:aif:journl:v:4:y:2020:i:12:p:115-122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijsab.com/wp-content/uploads/630.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ijsab.com/volume-4-issue-12/3404
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1982. "Limit Pricing and Entry under Incomplete Information: An Equilibrium Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(2), pages 443-459, March.
    2. Kyle Bagwell & Garey Ramey, 1991. "Oligopoly Limit Pricing," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(2), pages 155-172, Summer.
    3. Steven A Matthews & Doron Fertig, 1990. "Advertising Signals of Product Quality," Discussion Papers 881, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    4. César Martinelli & Akihiko Matsui, 2002. "Policy Reversals and Electoral Competition with Privately Informed Parties," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 4(1), pages 39-61, January.
    5. Schultz, Christian, 1999. "Limit pricing when incumbents have conflicting interests," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 801-825, August.
    6. Joseph E. Harrington Jr., 1987. "Oligopolistic Entry Deterrence under Incomplete Information," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(2), pages 211-231, Summer.
    7. Martin, Stephen, 1995. "Oligopoly limit pricing: Strategic substitutes, strategic complements," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 41-65, March.
    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. Hillary Ekisa Nambanga, 2021. "Limit Pricing through Price Discrimination: A Theoretical study among Telocommunication Companies in East Africa," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(1), pages 57-66.
    2. Hillary Ekisa Nambanga & Jianpei Li, 2021. "Threat of Entry, Complete Information and Pricing," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(5), pages 161-182.

    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. Müller, Wieland & Spiegel, Yossi & Yehezkel, Yaron, 2009. "Oligopoly limit-pricing in the lab," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 373-393, May.
    2. Hillary Ekisa Nambanga & Jianpei Li, 2021. "Threat of Entry, Complete Information and Pricing," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(5), pages 161-182.
    3. Schultz, Christian, 1999. "Limit pricing when incumbents have conflicting interests," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 801-825, August.
    4. Minghua Chen & Konstantinos Serfes & Eleftherios Zacharias, 2023. "Prices as signals of product quality in a duopoly," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 52(1), pages 1-31, March.
    5. Jeong-Yoo Kim, 2003. "Entry Deterrence and Entry Inducement in an Industry with Complementary Products," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 107-123.
    6. Bipasa Datta, "undated". "Experimentation, Information sharing and Oligopoly Limit Pricing," Discussion Papers 99/34, Department of Economics, University of York.
    7. Vaccari, Federico, 2023. "Competition in costly talk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    8. Miguel Ángel Ropero, 2021. "Entry deterrence when the potential entrant is your competitor in a different market," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(3), pages 1010-1030, January.
    9. Xiao, Tiaojun & Qi, Xiangtong, 2010. "Strategic wholesale pricing in a supply chain with a potential entrant," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(2), pages 444-455, April.
    10. Andrew F. Daughety & Jennifer F. Reinganum, 2008. "Imperfect competition and quality signalling," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(1), pages 163-183, March.
    11. Rupayan Pal & Bibhas Saha, 2008. "Union-oligopoly bargaining and entry deterrence: a reassessment of limit pricing," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 121-147, November.
    12. Daughety, Andrew F. & Reinganum, Jennifer F., 2007. "Competition and confidentiality: Signaling quality in a duopoly when there is universal private information," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 94-120, January.
    13. Jun, Byoung Heon & Park, In-Uck, 2010. "Anti-Limit Pricing," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 51(2), pages 1-22, December.
    14. Cesaltina Pires & Sílvia Jorge, 2012. "Limit pricing under third-degree price discrimination," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 41(3), pages 671-698, August.
    15. Ana Espínola-Arredondo & Félix Muñoz-García, 2015. "Can Poorly Informed Regulators Hinder Competition?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(3), pages 433-461, July.
    16. Andrew F. Daughety & Jennifer F. Reinganum, 2006. "Hidden Talents: Partnerships with Pareto-Improving Private Information," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0613, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    17. Granero, Lluís M. & Ordóñez-de-Haro, José M., 2015. "Entry under uncertainty: Limit and most-favored-customer pricing," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-11.
    18. Vaccari, Federico, 2021. "Competition in Signaling," MPRA Paper 106071, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Melkonyan, Tigran A., 2006. "Value of reputation in the chain-store game with multiple incumbents," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 425-448, March.
    20. Alex Barrachina & Yair Tauman & Amparo Urbano Salvador, 2014. "Entry with Two Correlated Signals," Discussion Papers in Economic Behaviour 0714, University of Valencia, ERI-CES.

    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:aif:journl:v:4:y:2020:i:12:p:115-122. 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: Farjana Rahman (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.