We propose a comprehensive concept of oligopolistic equilibrium, allowing for a parametrized continuum of competition regimes, with each firm setting simultaneously both its price and its quantity and facing two constraints: one relative to its share ofthe market, the other relative to the size of the market. The type of solution (i.e. the competition regime) will vary according to the values of the Lagrange multipliers associated with each of these two constraints. In the homogeneous case, the set of oligopolistic equilibria will be shown to include the Cournot solution at tone extreme, when competition is extremely soft, as well as the competitive equilibrium at the other extreme, when competition is extremely tough. The set of equilibria may be characterized as supply function equilibria, with firms strategy spaces restricted to the set of non-decreasing supply functions, or, alternatively, as a selected subset of the outcomes obtained by conjectural variations of a particular type (the compensating ones). The proposed concept of oligopolistic equilibrium is also applicable to an industry supplying a group of differentiated products, the homogeneous product being the limit case corresponding to perfect substitutability.
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Paper provided by Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) in its series CORE Discussion Papers with number
2003010.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Chaim Fershtman & Kenneth L Judd, 1984.
"Equilibrium Incentives in Oligopoly,"
Discussion Papers
642, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
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Dixit, Avinash K, 1986.
"Comparative Statics for Oligopoly,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 27(1), pages 107-22, February.
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