IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cor/louvco/2003065.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Market structure, scale economies and industry performance

Author

Listed:
  • AMIR, Rabah

Abstract

We provide an extensive and general investigation of the effecst on industry performance - profits, social welfare and price-cost margins - of exogenously changing the number of firms in Cournot markets. This includes an in-depth exploration of the well-known trade-off between competition and production efficiency. Most conventional beliefs actually require some qualifications to be valid. Under scale economies, welfare is maximized by a finite number of firms. Our results shed light on several policy debates in industrial organization, including the relationship between the Herfindahl index and social welfare, destructive competition and natural monopoly. Our analytical approach combines simplicity with generality.

Suggested Citation

  • AMIR, Rabah, 2003. "Market structure, scale economies and industry performance," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2003065, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2003065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sites.uclouvain.be/core/publications/coredp/coredp2003.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kotaro Suzumura & Kazuharu Kiyono, 1987. "Entry Barriers and Economic Welfare," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(1), pages 157-167.
    2. Ramey, Valerie A. & West, Kenneth D., 1999. "Inventories," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 863-923, Elsevier.
    3. Farrell, Joseph & Shapiro, Carl, 1990. "Horizontal Mergers: An Equilibrium Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 107-126, March.
    4. William Novshek, 1985. "On the Existence of Cournot Equilibrium," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 52(1), pages 85-98.
    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. Rabah Amir & Val E. Lambson, 2000. "On the Effects of Entry in Cournot Markets," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(2), pages 235-254.
    7. Claude D’Aspremont & Rodolphe Dos Santos Ferreira & Louis-Andre Gerard-Varet, 2000. "Contestability and the Indeterminacy of Free-Entry Equilibria," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 72-83, March.
    8. Demsetz, Harold, 1973. "Industry Structure, Market Rivalry, and Public Policy," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, April.
    9. Charles R. Frank, 1965. "Entry in a Cournot Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 32(3), pages 245-250.
    10. Seade, Jesus K, 1980. "On the Effects of Entry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(2), pages 479-489, March.
    11. Diewert, Walter E & Wales, Terence J, 1987. "Flexible Functional Forms and Global Curvature Conditions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 43-68, January.
    12. Ramón Faulí-Oller, 1997. "On merger profitability in a cournot setting," Working Papers. Serie AD 1997-03, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    13. Spence, Michael, 1983. "Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure: A Review Article," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 981-990, September.
    14. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1994. "Comparing Equilibria," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 441-459, June.
    15. Susan Athey, 2002. "Monotone Comparative Statics under Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 187-223.
    16. Lambson, Val Eugene, 1987. "Is the Concentration-Profit Correlation Partly an Artifact of Lumpy Technology?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 731-733, September.
    17. Roberts, John & Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1976. "On the existence of Cournot equilbrium without concave profit functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 112-117, August.
    18. Ramey, Valerie A, 1989. "Inventories as Factors of Production and Economic Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 338-354, June.
    19. Ann F. Friedlaender & Clifford Winston & Kung Wang, 1983. "Costs, Technology, and Productivity in the U.S. Automobile Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, Spring.
    20. Cox, James C. & Walker, Mark, 1998. "Learning to play Cournot duopoly strategies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 141-161, August.
    21. Caplin, Andrew & Nalebuff, Barry, 1991. "Aggregation and Imperfect Competition: On the Existence of Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(1), pages 25-59, January.
    22. Perry, Martin K, 1984. "Scale Economies, Imperfect Competition, and Public Policy," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 313-333, March.
    23. Javier M. López-Cuñat, 1999. "One-stage and two-stage entry Cournot equilibria," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 23(1), pages 115-128, January.
    24. William Novshek, 1980. "Cournot Equilibrium with Free Entry," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(3), pages 473-486.
    25. Amir, R., 1996. "Cournot oligopoly and theory of supermodular games," LIDAM Reprints CORE 1228, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    26. de Meza, David, 1985. "A Stable Cournot-Nash Industry Need Not Be Quasi-competitive," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 153-156, May.
    27. N. Gregory Mankiw & Michael D. Whinston, 1986. "Free Entry and Social Inefficiency," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 48-58, Spring.
    28. Amir, Rabah, 1996. "Cournot Oligopoly and the Theory of Supermodular Games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 132-148, August.
    29. Greg Shaffer & Stephen W. Salant, 1999. "Unequal Treatment of Identical Agents in Cournot Equilibrium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 585-604, June.
    30. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "Rationalizability, Learning, and Equilibrium in Games with Strategic Complementarities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(6), pages 1255-1277, November.
    31. R. J. Ruffin, 1971. "Cournot Oligopoly and Competitive Behaviour," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(4), pages 493-502.
    32. F. H. Hahn, 1962. "The Stability of the Cournot Oligopoly Solution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 29(4), pages 329-331.
    33. Bresnahan, Timothy F., 1989. "Empirical studies of industries with market power," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 17, pages 1011-1057, Elsevier.
    34. Joseph Farrell & Carl Shapiro, 1990. "Asset Ownership and Market Structure in Oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(2), pages 275-292, Summer.
    35. Fauli-Oller, Ramon, 1997. "On merger profitability in a Cournot setting," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 75-79, January.
    36. Brock, William A, 1983. "Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure: A Review Article," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(6), pages 1055-1066, December.
    37. Koji Okuguchi, 1973. "Quasi-Competitiveness and Cournot Oligopoly," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(1), pages 145-148.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sara Amoroso & Peter M. Kort & Bertrand Melenberg & Joseph Plasmans & Mark Vancauteren, 2010. "Firm Level Productivity under Imperfect Competition in Output and Labor Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 3082, CESifo.
    2. Manuela Mosca, 2008. "On the origins of the concept of natural monopoly: Economies of scale and competition," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 317-353.
    3. Amir, Rabah & Lazzati, Natalia, 2011. "Network effects, market structure and industry performance," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(6), pages 2389-2419.
    4. Boone, J. & van Ours, J.C. & van der Wiel, H.P., 2007. "How (Not) to Measure Competition," Discussion Paper 2007-32, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    5. Lewis Evans & Patrick Hughes, 2003. "Competition Policy in Small Distant Open Economies: Some Lessons from the Economics Literature," Treasury Working Paper Series 03/31, New Zealand Treasury.
    6. Duso, Tomaso & Seldeslachts, Jo & Szucs, Florian, 2019. "The Impact of Competition Policy Enforcement on the Functioning of EU Energy Markets," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 40(01), pages 97-120.
    7. Fang Tian & Greys Sošić & Laurens Debo, 2019. "Manufacturers’ Competition and Cooperation in Sustainability: Stable Recycling Alliances," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4733-4753, October.
    8. Doan, Tinh & Stevens, Philip, 2012. "Evolution of competition in Vietnam industries over the recent economic transition," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-24.
    9. Ansari, Jugnu, 2012. "A New Measure of Competition in Indian Loan Market," MPRA Paper 50108, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Schiersch Alexander & Schmidt-Ehmcke Jens, 2011. "Is the Boone-Indicator Applicable? – Evidence from a Combined Data Set of German Manufacturing Enterprises," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 231(3), pages 336-357, June.
    11. Maman Setiawan, 2023. "Measuring the Competition Index in the Indonesian Manufacturing Industry: The Structure–Conduct–Performance Paradigm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-13, July.
    12. Paul Belleflamme & Eric Toulemonde, 2009. "Negative Intra-Group Externalities In Two-Sided Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(1), pages 245-272, February.
    13. M. van Leuvensteijn, 2014. "The Boone-indicator: Identifying different regimes of competition for the American Sugar Refining Company 1890-1914," Working Papers 08-37, Utrecht School of Economics.
    14. Jugnu Ansari, 2013. "A new measure of competition in Indian loan markets," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 2(4), pages 60-77, October.
    15. Hailu Abebe Wondirad, 2020. "Competition and microfinance institutions’ performance: evidence from India," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, December.
    16. Koski, Heli & Pajarinen, Mika, 2013. "Empirical Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Competition Policy," ETLA Working Papers 15, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    17. Xuan Dong Nguyen & Xavier de Vanssay & Craig Parsons, 2015. "The Japanese Automobile Tyre Industry under Scrutiny," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 141-162, February.
    18. Jedlicka, Lorenz & Jumah, Adusei, 2006. "The Austrian Insurance Industry: A Structure, Conduct and Performance Analysis," Economics Series 189, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    19. Ramon Fauli‐Oller & Joel Sandonís, 2022. "Fee versus royalty licensing in a Cournot duopoly with increasing marginal costs," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 90(4), pages 439-452, July.

    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. Amir, Rabah & De Castro, Luciano & Koutsougeras, Leonidas, 2014. "Free entry versus socially optimal entry," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 112-125.
    2. Hoernig, Steffen H., 2003. "Existence of equilibrium and comparative statics in differentiated goods Cournot oligopolies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 989-1019, September.
    3. Rabah Amir & Val E. Lambson, 2000. "On the Effects of Entry in Cournot Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 67(2), pages 235-254.
    4. Amir, Rabah & De Castro, Luciano, 2017. "Nash equilibrium in games with quasi-monotonic best-responses," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 220-246.
    5. Gama, Adriana & Rietzke, David, 2019. "Monotone comparative statics in games with non-monotonic best-replies: Contests and Cournot oligopoly," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 823-841.
    6. Rabah Amir, 2005. "Supermodularity and Complementarity in Economics: An Elementary Survey," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(3), pages 636-660, January.
    7. Amir, Rabah & Evstigneev, Igor & Wooders, John, 2003. "Noncooperative versus cooperative R&D with endogenous spillover rates," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 183-207, February.
    8. Corchón, Luis C. & Torregrosa, Ramón J., 2020. "Cournot equilibrium revisited," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-10.
    9. Jean J. Gabszewicz & Jacques-François Thisse, 2000. "Microeconomic theories of imperfect competition," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 37(1), pages 47-99.
    10. Amir, Rabah, 2005. "Ordinal versus cardinal complementarity: The case of Cournot oligopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-14, October.
    11. Acemoglu, Daron & Jensen, Martin Kaae, 2013. "Aggregate comparative statics," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 27-49.
    12. Corchon, Luis C. & Fradera, Isabel, 2002. "Comparative statics in Cournot free entry equilibrium," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 155-168, November.
    13. Amir, Rabah & Diamantoudi, Effrosyni & Xue, Licun, 2009. "Merger performance under uncertain efficiency gains," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 264-273, March.
    14. Roy, Sunanda & Sabarwal, Tarun, 2010. "Monotone comparative statics for games with strategic substitutes," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 793-806, September.
    15. Tesoriere, Antonio, 2017. "Stackelberg equilibrium with multiple firms and setup costs," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 86-102.
    16. Fevrier, Philippe & Linnemer, Laurent, 2004. "Idiosyncratic shocks in an asymmetric Cournot oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 835-848, June.
    17. Ewerhart, Christian, 2014. "Cournot games with biconcave demand," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 37-47.
    18. Tesoriere, Antonio, 2017. "Stackelberg equilibrium with many leaders and followers. The case of zero fixed costs," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 102-117.
    19. Amir, Rabah & Burr, Chrystie, 2015. "Corruption and socially optimal entry," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 30-41.
    20. Uchiyama, Takashi, 2018. "Quasi-competitiveness in the Cournot model with heterogeneous firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 62-64.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cournot oligopoly; returns to scale; entry; equilibrium comparative statics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General

    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:cor:louvco:2003065. 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: Alain GILLIS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/coreebe.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.