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Cost Structures and Nash Play in Repeated Cournot Games

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  • Douglas Davis
  • Robert Reilly
  • Bart Wilson

Abstract

This paper reports an experiment designed to assess the effects of a rotation in the marginal cost curve on convergence in a repeated Cournot triopoly. Increasing the cost curve's slope both reduces the serially-undominated set to the Nash prediction, and increases the peakedness of earnings. We observe higher rates of Nash equilibrium play in the design with the steeper marginal cost schedule, but only when participants are also rematched after each decision. Examination of response patterns suggests that the treatment with a steeper marginal cost curve and with a re-matching of participants across periods induces the selection of Nash Consistent responses. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas Davis & Robert Reilly & Bart Wilson, 2003. "Cost Structures and Nash Play in Repeated Cournot Games," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 6(2), pages 209-226, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:6:y:2003:i:2:p:209-226
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1025361105730
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    7. Davis, Douglas D., 2002. "Strategic interactions, market information and predicting the effects of mergers in differentiated product markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(9), pages 1277-1312, November.
    8. Davis, Douglas D., 1999. "Advance production and Cournot outcomes: an experimental investigation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 59-79, September.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Potters, Jan & Suetens, Sigrid, 2020. "Optimization incentives in dilemma games with strategic complementarity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
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    5. Douglas Davis & Oleg Korenok & Robert Reilly, 2009. "Re-matching, information and sequencing effects in posted offer markets," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 12(1), pages 65-86, March.
    6. Till Requate & Israel Waichman, 2011. "“A profit table or a profit calculator?” A note on the design of Cournot oligopoly experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(1), pages 36-46, March.
    7. Majerczyk, Michael & Sheremeta, Roman & Tian, Yu, 2019. "Adding tournament to tournament: Combining between-team and within-team incentives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-11.
    8. Cédric Argenton & Radosveta Ivanova-Stenzel & Wieland Müller, 2023. "Cournot Meets Bayes-Nash: A Discontinuity in Behavior in Finitely Repeated Duopoly Games," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 460, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    9. Argenton, Cédric & Ivanova-Stenzel, Radosveta & Müller, Wieland, 2022. "Cournot Meets Bayes-Nash: A Discontinuity in Behavior in Finitely Repeated Duopoly Games," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264079, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Jan Potters & Sigrid Suetens, 2013. "Oligopoly Experiments In The Current Millennium," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 439-460, July.
    11. Gary E. Bolton & Sabrina Bonzelet & Tobias Stangl & Ulrich W. Thonemann, 2023. "Decision making under service‐level contracts: The role of cost saliency," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(4), pages 1243-1261, April.
    12. Potters, Jan & Suetens, Sigrid, 2020. "Optimization incentives in dilemma games with strategic complementarity," Other publications TiSEM e89234c8-de8f-42cc-a3dc-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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