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Evolutionary Competition between Adjustment Processes in Cournot Oligopoly: Instability and Complex Dynamics

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  • Cars H. Hommes
  • Marius I. Ochea
  • Jan Tuinstra

    (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA)

Abstract

We introduce evolutionary competition between adjustment processes in the Cournot oligopoly model. Our main focus is on rational play versus a general short-memory adaptive adjustment process. We nd that, although rational play has a stabilizing inuence, a su¢ cient increase in the number of rms in the market tends to make the Cournot-Nash equilibrium unstable. Moreover, the interaction between adjustment processes naturally leads to the emergence of complicated endogenous uctuations as the number of rms increases, even when demand and costs are linear.

Suggested Citation

  • Cars H. Hommes & Marius I. Ochea & Jan Tuinstra, 2016. "Evolutionary Competition between Adjustment Processes in Cournot Oligopoly: Instability and Complex Dynamics," THEMA Working Papers 2016-03, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    • Handle: RePEc:ema:worpap:2016-03
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    4. Akio Matsumoto & Ferenc Szidarovszky, 2020. "Delay Stability of n -Firm Cournot Oligopolies," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Fabio Lamantia & Anghel Negriu & Jan Tuinstra, 2018. "Technology choice in an evolutionary oligopoly game," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 41(2), pages 335-356, November.
    6. Kopel, Michael & Lamantia, Fabio, 2018. "The persistence of social strategies under increasing competitive pressure," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 71-83.
    7. Wang, Chun & Pi, Jinxiu & Zhou, Die & Tang, Wei & Yang, Guanghui, 2023. "Dynamics of n-person Cournot games with asymmetric information and heterogeneous expectations," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 618(C).
    8. Davide Radi & Laura Gardini, 2023. "Ambiguity aversion as a route to randomness in a duopoly game," Papers 2311.11366, arXiv.org.
    9. Nikolaos Chrysanthopoulos & George P. Papavassilopoulos, 2021. "Adaptive rules for discrete-time Cournot games of high competition level markets," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 2879-2906, December.
    10. Anufriev, Mikhail & Kopányi, Dávid, 2018. "Oligopoly game: Price makers meet price takers," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 84-103.
    11. Pangallo, Marco & Farmer, J. Doyne & Sanders, James & Galla, Tobias, 2017. "A taxonomy of learning dynamics in 2 × 2 games," INET Oxford Working Papers 2017-06, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    12. Daan Lindeman & Marius I. Ochea, 2018. "Imitation Dynamics in Oligopoly Games with Heterogeneous Players," THEMA Working Papers 2018-15, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stability of Cournot-Nash equilibrium; n-player Cournot games; Evolutionary competition; Endogenous uctuations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection

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