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Tacit collusion in a one-shot game of price competition with soft capacity constraints

Author

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  • Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin

    (CREAM - Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée à la Mondialisation - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - IRIHS - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université)

  • Nicolas Drouhin

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper analyses price competition in the case of two firms operating under constant returns to scale with more than one production factor. Factors are chosen sequentially in a two-stage game generating a soft capacity constraint and implying a convex short term cost function in the second stage of the game. We show that tacit collusion is the only predictable result of the whole game i.e. the unique payoff-dominant pure strategy Nash equilibrium. Technically, this paper bridges the capacity constraint literature on price competition and that of the convex cost function.

Suggested Citation

  • Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2012. "Tacit collusion in a one-shot game of price competition with soft capacity constraints," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00709093, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-00709093
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00709093v2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2010. "The end of the Bertrand Paradox?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00542486, HAL.
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    Cited by:

    1. Burguet, Roberto & Sákovics, József, 2017. "Bertrand and the long run," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 39-55.
    2. Cabon-Dhersin Marie-Laure & Drouhin Nicolas, 2017. "A general model of price competition with soft capacity constraints," Working Papers 2017-56, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    3. Tomomichi Mizuno & Kazuhiro Takauchi, 2024. "Bertrand competition in vertically related markets," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 524-529, March.
    4. Werner Güth & Manfred Stadler & Alexandra Zaby, 2019. "Coordination Failure in Capacity-then-Price-Setting Games," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 111-133, December.
    5. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2020. "A general model of price competition with soft capacity constraints," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 70(1), pages 95-120, July.
    6. Elpiniki Bakaouka & Marc Escrihuela-Villar & Walter Ferrarese, 2022. "Endogenous Horizontal Mergers in Homogeneous Goods Industries with Bertrand Competition," DEA Working Papers 96, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    7. Kazuhiro Takauchi & Tomomichi Mizuno, 2022. "Endogenous transport price, R&D spillovers, and trade," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 1477-1500, May.
    8. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Jonas Didisse, 2017. "Inter-university competition and high tuition fees," Working Papers halshs-01174291, HAL.
    9. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2021. "Chamberlin without differentiation: Soft-capacity constrained price competition with free entry," Working Papers halshs-03378500, HAL.
    10. Kazuhiro Takauchi & Tomomichi Mizuno, 2019. "Is competition in the transport industry bad?A welfare analysis of R&D with inter-regional transportation," Discussion Papers 1910, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    11. Tomomichi Mizuno & Kazuhiro Takauchi, 2020. "Optimal Export Policy With Upstream Price Competition," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(2), pages 324-348, March.
    12. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2022. "Chamberlin without differentiation: Soft-capacity constrained price competition with free entry," Post-Print halshs-03378500, HAL.
    13. WAUTHY, Xavier Y., 2014. "From Bertrand to Cournot via Kreps and Scheinkman: a hazardous journey," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014026, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    14. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2020. "Soft-Capacity constrained price competition with entry and a minimum firm size: Chamberlin without differentiation," Working Papers hal-02909801, HAL.
    15. Marie‐Laure Cabon‐Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2023. "Chamberlin without differentiation: Soft capacity constrained price competition with free entry," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(1), pages 118-126, March.
    16. Burguet, Roberto & Sákovics, József, 2014. "Bertrand and the long run," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon TN 2015-38, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

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    Keywords

    price competition; tacit collusion; convex cost; Bertrand Paradox; capacity constraint;
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