We study the dynamics of entry and exit based on firms' learning about their relative cost positions. Each firm's marginal cost of production is its own private information, thereby facing ex ante uncertainty about its cost position. The (inelastic) market demand can accommodate only a fraction of firms to operate, and thus only firms with relatively lower costs are viable in the long run. Some firms in the market will exit if excessive entry (or overshooting) occurs. We derive the unique symmetric sequential equilibrium. The equilibrium properties are consistent with empirical observations: (i) entry occurs gradually over time with lower cost firms entering earlier than higher cost firms, (ii) exiting firms are among the ones that entered later (indeed in the last period). Moreover, equilibrium overshooting probability is shown to always be positive and decreasing over time.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.