IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eis/articl/104ghosal.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pre-Emptive Investment Behaviour and Industry Structure

Author

Listed:
  • V Ghosal

Abstract

Models of strategic investment behaviour show that an incumbent firm by making pre-emptive capital investments may restrict the entrant's size and increase its market share, or deter entry and limit the number of firms in the industry. The existing empirical literature on testing strategic investment models offers inconclusive evidence. This paper takes a different approach and focuses on the incentives of pre-emptive investments and shows that upward and downward adjustment costs of capital will be important determinants of the desirability and credibility of pre-emptive investments. This in turn posits a link between the upward and downward adjustment costs and industry structure as measured by concentration and the number of firms. While the empirical analysis is best viewed as suggestive and offering an alternative approach to examining strategic investment behaviour, the empirical results, based on a large sample of US manufacturing industries, reveals evidence in favour of such a relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • V Ghosal, 2004. "Pre-Emptive Investment Behaviour and Industry Structure," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 9(1), pages 47-68, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eis:articl:104ghosal
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economicissues.org.uk/Files/104Ghosal.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Michael Spence, 1979. "Investment Strategy and Growth in a New Market," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19, Spring.
    2. Elie Appelbaum & Chin Lim, 1985. "Contestable Markets under Uncertainty," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(1), pages 28-40, Spring.
    3. A. Michael Spence, 1977. "Entry, Capacity, Investment and Oligopolistic Pricing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 8(2), pages 534-544, Autumn.
    4. Dixit, Avinash, 1980. "The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 95-106, March.
    5. Baumol, William J, 1982. "Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(1), pages 1-15, March.
    6. Lieberman, Marvin B, 1987. "Excess Capacity as a Barrier to Entry: An Empirical Appraisal," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 607-627, June.
    7. Galeotti, Marzio, 1990. "Specification of the Technology for Neoclassical Investment Theory: Testing the Adjustment Costs Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(3), pages 471-480, August.
    8. Hilke, John C, 1984. "Excess Capacity and Entry: Some Empirical Evidence," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 233-240, December.
    9. Michael Waldman, 1987. "Noncooperative Entry Deterrence, Uncertainty, and the Free Rider Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(2), pages 301-310.
    10. Spencer, Barbara J. & Brander, James A., 1992. "Pre-commitment and flexibility : Applications to oligopoly theory," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1601-1626, December.
    11. Richard Gilbert & Xavier Vives, 1986. "Entry Deterrence and the Free Rider Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(1), pages 71-83.
    12. Kessides, Ioannis N, 1986. "Advertising, Sunk Costs, and Barriers to Entry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(1), pages 84-95, February.
    13. John Sutton, 1997. "Technologie a tržní struktura [Technology and Market Structure]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 1997(1), pages 29-45.
    14. Singh, Satwinder & Utton, Michael & Waterson, Michael, 1998. "Strategic behaviour of incumbent firms in the UK," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 229-251, March.
    15. Kirman, William I. & Masson, Robert T., 1986. "Capacity signals and entry deterrence," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 25-42, March.
    16. Reynolds, Stanley S, 1987. "Capacity Investment, Preemption and Commitment in an Infinite Horizon Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 28(1), pages 69-88, February.
    17. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    18. Kessides, Ioannis N, 1990. "Market Concentration, Contestability, and Sunk Costs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(4), pages 614-622, November.
    19. Masson, Robert T & Shaanan, Joseph, 1986. "Excess Capacity and Limit Pricing: An Empirical Test," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 53(211), pages 365-378, August.
    20. Smiley, Robert, 1988. "Empirical evidence on strategic entry deterrence," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 167-180.
    21. Kennan, John, 1979. "The Estimation of Partial Adjustment Models with Rational Expectations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(6), pages 1441-1455, November.
    22. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Vivek Ghosal, 2003. "Endemic Volatility of Firms and Establishments: Are Real Options Effects Important?," CIG Working Papers SP II 2003-13, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    2. Vivek Ghosal, 2003. "Firm and Establishment Volatility: The Role of Sunk Costs, Profit Uncertainty and Technological Change," CESifo Working Paper Series 980, CESifo.
    3. Ghosal, Vivek, 2007. "Small is Beautiful but Size Matters: The Asymmetric Impact of Uncertainty and Sunk Costs on Small and Large Businesses," MPRA Paper 5461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ghosal, Vivek, 2002. "Impact of Uncertainty and Sunk Costs on Firm Survival and Industry Dynamics," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 86, Royal Economic Society.
    5. Shaanan, Joseph, 1997. "Idle sunk cost capacity, entry, and profitability: An empirical study," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 267-283.
    6. Lalit Manral, 2015. "The demand-side dynamics of entrant heterogeneity," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 401-445, April.
    7. Michele Cincera, 2004. "Impact of market entry and exit on EU productivity and growth performance," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/921, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Sheng-Ping Yang, 2018. "Entry and Exit Decisions with Switching Regime Excess Capacity," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 24(4), pages 351-369, November.
    9. Lutz, Clemens & Kemp, Ron & Dijkstra, S. Gerhard, 2007. "SME's perceptions regarding strategic and structural entry barriers," Research Report 07009, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    10. repec:dgr:rugsom:07009 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Goo, Moon Mo, 1997. "The measurement of market power: short-run, long-run, and dynamic adjustment models," ISU General Staff Papers 1997010108000012985, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    12. Mathis, Stephen & Koscianski, Janet, 1997. "Excess capacity as a barrier to entry in the US titanium industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 263-281, April.
    13. Yamawaki, Hideki, 2002. "Price reactions to new competition: A study of US luxury car market, 1986-1997," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 19-39, January.
    14. Arrieta Paredes, Mary-Paz, 2004. "Capacity Expansions timing patterns in the United Kingdom’s petroleum refining industry between 1948 and 1998," MPRA Paper 32239, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Thomas, Louis A., 1999. "Incumbent firms' response to entry: Price, advertising, and new product introduction," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 527-555, May.
    16. Christos Pitelis & Mirko Schnell, 2002. "Barriers to Mobility in Europe's Civil Aviation Markets: Theory and New Evidence," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 20(2), pages 127-150, March.
    17. Clemens Lutz & Ron Kemp & S. Gerhard Dijkstra, 2010. "Perceptions regarding strategic and structural entry barriers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 19-33, July.
    18. Geroski, P. A., 1995. "What do we know about entry?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 421-440, December.
    19. Cariola, Monica, 1999. "A high-potential sector: titanium metal: Oligopolistic policies and technological constraints as main limits to its development," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 151-159, September.
    20. Michael Conlin & Vrinda Kadiyali, 2006. "Entry‐Deterring Capacity in the Texas Lodging Industry," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 167-185, March.
    21. Koscianski, Janet & Mathis, Stephen, 1995. "Excess capacity and the probability of entry An application to the US titanium industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 43-51, March.

    More about this item

    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:eis:articl:104ghosal. 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: Dan Wheatley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bsntuuk.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.