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Inventories and Endogenous Stackelberg Leadership in Two‐Period Cournot Oligopoly

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  • Sébastien Mitraille
  • Michel Moreaux

Abstract

Two‐period Cournot competition between n identical firms producing at constant marginal cost and able to store before selling has pure strategy Nash‐perfect equilibria, in which some firms store to exert endogenously a leadership over rivals. The number of firms storing balances market share gains, obtained by accumulating early the output, with losses in margin resulting from increased sales and higher operation costs. This number and the industry inventories are nonmonotonic in n. Concentration (HHI) and aggregate sales increase due to the strategic use of inventories.

Suggested Citation

  • Sébastien Mitraille & Michel Moreaux, 2013. "Inventories and Endogenous Stackelberg Leadership in Two‐Period Cournot Oligopoly," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 852-874, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:22:y:2013:i:4:p:852-874
    DOI: 10.1111/jems.12031
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    Cited by:

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    2. Xiaowei Hu & Jaejin Jang & Nabeel Hamoud & Amirsaman Bajgiran, 2021. "Strategic Inventories in a Supply Chain with Downstream Cournot Duopoly," Papers 2109.06995, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    3. Severin Lenhard, 2021. "Imperfect Competition with Costly Disposal," Diskussionsschriften dp2105, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
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    6. Fabio Antoniou & Raffaele Fiocco, 2019. "Strategic inventories under limited commitment," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(3), pages 695-729, September.
    7. Mitraille, Sébastien & Thille, Henry, 2014. "Speculative storage in imperfectly competitive markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 44-59.
    8. Sébastien Mitraille & Henry Thille, 2020. "Strategic advance sales, demand uncertainty and overcommitment," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(3), pages 789-828, April.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • 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

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