IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ems/eureir/22805.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An evolutionary model of price competition among spatially distributed firms

Author

Listed:
  • Waltman, L.
  • van Eck, N.J.P.
  • Dekker, R.
  • Kaymak, U.

Abstract

Various studies have shown the emergence of cooperative behavior in evolutionary models with spatially distributed agents. We investigate to what extent these findings generalize to evolutionary models of price competition among spatially distributed firms. We consider both one- and two-dimensional models, and we vary the amount of information firms have about competitors in their neighborhood. Our computer simulations show that the emergence of cooperative behavior depends strongly on the amount of information available to firms. Firms tend to behave most cooperatively if they have only a very limited amount of information about their competitors. We provide an intuitive explanation for this phenomenon. Our simulations further indicate that three other factors in our models, namely the accuracy of firms’ information, the probability of experimentation, and the spatial distribution of consumers, have little effect on the emergence of cooperative behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Waltman, L. & van Eck, N.J.P. & Dekker, R. & Kaymak, U., 2011. "An evolutionary model of price competition among spatially distributed firms," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2011-09, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:ems:eureir:22805
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/22805/EI2011-09.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joëlle Noailly & Jeroen Bergh & Cees Withagen, 2009. "Local and Global Interactions in an Evolutionary Resource Game," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 155-173, March.
    2. Alexander Tieman & Harold Houba & Gerard Laan, 2000. "On the level of cooperative behavior in a local-interaction model," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 71(1), pages 1-30, February.
    3. Outkin, Alexander V., 2003. "Cooperation and local interactions in the Prisoners' Dilemma Game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 481-503, December.
    4. Robert Hoffmann, 1999. "The Independent Localisations of Interaction and Learning in the Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 57-72, August.
    5. Avner Shaked & Ilan Eshel & Emilia Sansone, 1999. "The emergence of kinship behavior in structured populations of unrelated individuals," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 28(4), pages 447-463.
    6. Bergstrom, Theodore C & Stark, Oded, 1993. "How Altruism Can Prevail in an Evolutionary Environment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 149-155, May.
    7. Fosco, Constanza & Mengel, Friederike, 2011. "Cooperation through imitation and exclusion in networks," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 641-658, May.
    8. Selten, Reinhard & Apesteguia, Jose, 2005. "Experimentally observed imitation and cooperation in price competition on the circle," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 171-192, April.
    9. Kirchkamp, Oliver, 1999. "Simultaneous evolution of learning rules and strategies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 295-312, November.
    10. Kirchkamp, Oliver, 2000. "Spatial evolution of automata in the prisoners' dilemma," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 239-262, October.
    11. Joëlle Noailly & Cees Withagen & Jeroen Bergh, 2007. "Spatial Evolution of Social Norms in a Common-Pool Resource Game," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 36(1), pages 113-141, January.
    12. Oded Stark & Doris Behrens, 2010. "An evolutionary edge of knowing less (or: On the ‘curse’ of global information)," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 77-94, January.
    13. Tackseung Jun & Rajiv Sethi, 2008. "Neighborhood structure and the evolution of cooperation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 103-103, February.
    14. Ilan Eshel & Larry Samuelson & Avner Shaked, "undated". "Altruists Egoists and Hooligans in a Local Interaction Model," ELSE working papers 005, ESRC Centre on Economics Learning and Social Evolution.
    15. Eshel, Ilan & Samuelson, Larry & Shaked, Avner, 1998. "Altruists, Egoists, and Hooligans in a Local Interaction Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 157-179, March.
    16. Jason Barr & Troy Tassier, 2010. "Endogenous Neighborhood Selection and the Attainment of Cooperation in a Spatial Prisoner’s Dilemma Game," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 211-234, March.
    17. Tackseung Jun & Rajiv Sethi, 2009. "Reciprocity in evolving social networks," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 379-396, June.
    18. Bilancini, Ennio & Boncinelli, Leonardo, 2009. "The co-evolution of cooperation and defection under local interaction and endogenous network formation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 186-195, May.
    19. Friederike Mengel, 2009. "Conformism and cooperation in a local interaction model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 397-415, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Boyer, Tristan & Jonard, Nicolas, 2014. "Imitation and efficient contagion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 20-32.
    2. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-052 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Herings, P. Jean-Jacques & Peeters, Ronald & Tenev, Anastas P. & Thuijsman, Frank, 2021. "Naïve imitation and partial cooperation in a local public goods model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 162-185.
    4. Oded Stark & Doris Behrens, 2011. "In search of an evolutionary edge: trading with a few, more, or many," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 721-736, December.
    5. Hedlund Jonas, 2012. "Altruism and Local Interaction," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, June.
    6. van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M. & Gowdy, John M., 2009. "A group selection perspective on economic behavior, institutions and organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Oded Stark & Doris Behrens, 2010. "An evolutionary edge of knowing less (or: On the ‘curse’ of global information)," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 77-94, January.
    8. Kirchkamp, Oliver & Nagel, Rosemarie, 2007. "Naive learning and cooperation in network experiments," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 269-292, February.
    9. Yanlong Zhang & Wolfram Elsner, 2020. "Social leverage, a core mechanism of cooperation. Locality, assortment, and network evolution," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 867-889, July.
    10. Siegfried Berninghaus & Hans Haller & Alexander Outkin, 2006. "Neural networks and contagion," Revue d'économie industrielle, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 11-11.
    11. Bilancini, Ennio & Boncinelli, Leonardo, 2009. "The co-evolution of cooperation and defection under local interaction and endogenous network formation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 186-195, May.
    12. Sergi Lozano & Alex Arenas & Angel Sánchez, 2008. "Mesoscopic Structure Conditions the Emergence of Cooperation on Social Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(4), pages 1-9, April.
    13. Tackseung Jun & Rajiv Sethi, 2009. "Reciprocity in evolving social networks," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 379-396, June.
    14. Berninghaus, Siegfried & Haller, Hans, 2007. "Pairwise interaction on random graphs," Papers 06-16, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    15. Jonas Hedlund, 2015. "Imitation in Cournot oligopolies with multiple markets," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 60(3), pages 567-587, November.
    16. Herings, P.J.J. & Peeters, Ronald & Tenev, Anastas P., 2023. "Directed Reciprocity Subverts Altruism in Highly Adaptive Populations," Discussion Paper 2023-014, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    17. Kirchkamp, Oliver & Nagel, Rosemarie, 2005. "Learning and cooperation in network experiments," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 05-27, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    18. Abhimanyu Khan, 2014. "Coordination under global random interaction and local imitation," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(4), pages 721-745, November.
    19. Jiang, Ge & Weidenholzer, Simon, 2016. "Local Interactions under Switching Costs," Economics Discussion Papers 17770, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    20. Ekkehart Schlicht, 2004. "Social Evolution, Corporate Culture, and Exploitation," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(2), pages 232-242, June.
    21. Nathan Berg & Jeong-Yoo Kim & Kyu Min Lee, 2021. "Why is parochialism prevalent?: an evolutionary approach," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 16(4), pages 769-796, October.

    More about this item

    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:ems:eureir:22805. 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: RePub (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feeurnl.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.