IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/hastef/0069.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Risk-Averse Firms in Oligopoly

Author

Listed:
  • Asplund, Marcus

    (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)

Abstract

Does risk aversion lead to softer or fiercer competition? To give a complete answer, I provide a framework that can accommodate a wide range of alternative assumptions regarding the nature of competition and types of uncertainty. I show how more risk aversion will influence a firm's best response strategies, and that competition is unambiguously softer only in case of marginal cost uncertainty. In contrast to risk neutrality, the best response strategies depend on the level of fixed costs. This fact is extended to cover strategic investment models, and to analyse the importance of accumulated profits. I conclude by a discussion of how it is possible to test for risk-averse behaviour in oligopoly by conditioning on the type of uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Asplund, Marcus, 1995. "Risk-Averse Firms in Oligopoly," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 69, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 23 Feb 2000.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:hastef:0069
    Note: Previous title: Oligopoly and Risk Aversion
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0069.rev.pdf.zip
    File Function: Complete Rendering
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0069.rev.pdf
    File Function: Complete Rendering
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0069.rev.ps.zip
    File Function: Complete Rendering
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0069.rev.ps
    File Function: Complete Rendering
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    2. Haruna, Shoji, 1996. "Industry equilibrium, uncertainty, and futures markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 53-70.
    3. Dixit, Avinash, 1980. "The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 95-106, March.
    4. Eeckhoudt, Louis & Gollier, Christian & Schlesinger, Harris, 1996. "Changes in Background Risk and Risk-Taking Behavior," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(3), pages 683-689, May.
    5. Kimball, Miles S, 1993. "Standard Risk Aversion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(3), pages 589-611, May.
    6. Raith, Michael, 1996. "A General Model of Information Sharing in Oligopoly," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 260-288, October.
    7. Schmalensee, Richard, 1989. "Inter-industry studies of structure and performance," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 16, pages 951-1009, Elsevier.
    8. Severin Boreinstein & Andrea Shepard, 1996. "Dynamic Pricing in Retail Gasoline Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(3), pages 429-451, Autumn.
    9. Lieberman, Marvin B, 1987. "Excess Capacity as a Barrier to Entry: An Empirical Appraisal," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 607-627, June.
    10. Eldor, Rafael & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1990. "Oligopoly, uncertain demand, and forward markets," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 17-26, February.
    11. Kao, Jennifer L & Hughes, John S, 1993. "Note on Risk Aversion and Sharing of Firm-Specific Information in Duopolies," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 103-112, March.
    12. Glazer Jacob, 1994. "The Strategic Effects of Long-Term Debt in Imperfect Competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 428-443, April.
    13. Baron, David P, 1970. "Price Uncertainty, Utility, and Industry Equilibrium in Pure Competition," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 11(3), pages 463-480, October.
    14. Wambach, Achim, 1999. "Bertrand competition under cost uncertainty," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(7), pages 941-951, October.
    15. Gottfries, Nils, 1991. "Customer Markets, Credit Market Imperfections and Real Price Rigidity," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 58(231), pages 317-323, August.
    16. Tufano, Peter, 1996. "Who Manages Risk? An Empirical Examination of Risk Management Practices in the Gold Mining Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1097-1137, September.
    17. Bulow, Jeremy I & Geanakoplos, John D & Klemperer, Paul D, 1985. "Multimarket Oligopoly: Strategic Substitutes and Complements," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(3), pages 488-511, June.
    18. Dixit, Avinash K, 1986. "Comparative Statics for Oligopoly," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 27(1), pages 107-122, February.
    19. Kihlstrom, Richard E & Romer, David & Williams, Steve, 1981. "Risk Aversion with Random Initial Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 911-920, June.
    20. Bughin, J., 1999. "Oligopoly profit-sharing contracts and the firm's systematic risk1," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 549-558, March.
    21. Mark Bils, 1989. "Pricing in a Customer Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(4), pages 699-718.
    22. Froot, Kenneth A & Scharfstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1993. "Risk Management: Coordinating Corporate Investment and Financing Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1629-1658, December.
    23. Chevalier, Judith A & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Capital-Market Imperfections and Countercyclical Markups: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 703-725, September.
    24. Sandmo, Agnar, 1971. "On the Theory of the Competitive Firm under Price Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 65-73, March.
    25. 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.
    26. Klemperer, Paul D & Meyer, Margaret A, 1989. "Supply Function Equilibria in Oligopoly under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(6), pages 1243-1277, November.
    27. Hviid, Morten, 1989. "Risk-Averse Duopolists and Voluntary Information Transmission," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 49-64, September.
    28. Appelbaum, Elie & Katz, Eliakim, 1986. "Measures of Risk Aversion and Comparative Statics of Industry Equilibrium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 524-529, June.
    29. Baron, David P, 1971. "Demand Uncertainty in Imperfect Competition," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 12(2), pages 196-208, June.
    30. Rotemberg, Julio J & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "A Supergame-Theoretic Model of Price Wars during Booms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 390-407, June.
    31. Paul Klemperer & Margaret Meyer, 1986. "Price Competition vs. Quantity Competition: The Role of Uncertainty," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(4), pages 618-638, Winter.
    32. Gollier, Christian & Pratt, John W, 1996. "Risk Vulnerability and the Tempering Effect of Background Risk," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1109-1123, September.
    33. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    34. Geczy, Christopher & Minton, Bernadette A & Schrand, Catherine, 1997. "Why Firms Use Currency Derivatives," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1323-1354, September.
    35. Mark Rubinstein, 1976. "The Valuation of Uncertain Income Streams and the Pricing of Options," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 7(2), pages 407-425, Autumn.
    36. David Genesove & Wallace P. Mullin, 1998. "Testing Static Oligopoly Models: Conduct and Cost in the Sugar Industry, 1890-1914," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 355-377, Summer.
    37. Leland, Hayne E, 1972. "Theory of the Firm Facing Uncertain Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 278-291, June.
    38. Nance, Deana R & Smith, Clifford W, Jr & Smithson, Charles W, 1993. "On the Determinants of Corporate Hedging," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 267-284, March.
    39. Holthausen, Duncan M, 1979. "Kinky Demand, Risk Aversion and Price Leadership," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 20(2), pages 341-348, June.
    40. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    41. Hughes, John S. & Kao, Jennifer L., 1997. "Strategic forward contracting and observability," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 121-133, November.
    42. Tessitore, Anthony, 1994. "Market segmentation and oligopoly under uncertainty," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 65-75, May.
    43. Harris, Frederick H deB, 1986. "Market Structure and Price-Cost Performance under Endogenous Profit Risk," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 35-59, September.
    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. Barreda-Tarrazona, Iván & García-Gallego, Aurora & Georgantzís, Nikolaos & Andaluz-Funcia, Joaquín & Gil-Sanz, Agustín, 2011. "An experiment on spatial competition with endogenous pricing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 74-83, January.
    2. Xiangkang Yin, 2013. "Two-part tariffs set by a risk-averse monopolist," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 175-192, June.
    3. Guy Meunier, 2014. "Risk Aversion and Technology Portfolios," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(4), pages 347-365, June.
    4. Mohamed Jellal & François-Charles Wolff, 2005. "Free Entry under Uncertainty," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 85(1), pages 39-63, July.
    5. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    6. Meunier, Guy, 2013. "Risk aversion and technology mix in an electricity market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 866-874.
    7. Pazo, M&z. ausco & Consuelo & Jaumandreu, Jordi, 1999. "An empirical oligopoly model of a regulated market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 25-57, January.
    8. Richard Schmalensee, 2012. "“On a Level with Dentists?” Reflections on the Evolution of Industrial Organization," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 41(3), pages 157-179, November.
    9. Maarten C.W. Janssen & Vladimir A. Karamychev, 2005. "Auctions, Market Prices and the Risk Attitude Effect," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-025/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Kaplow, Louis & Shapiro, Carl, 2007. "Antitrust," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 1073-1225, Elsevier.
    11. Frederic Loss, 2012. "Optimal Hedging Strategies and Interactions between Firms," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 79-129, March.
    12. Daniel F. Spulber, 1992. "Economic Analysis And Management Strategy: A Survey," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(3), pages 535-574, September.
    13. Alberto Salvo, 2004. "Inferring Conduct under the Threat of Entry: The Case of the Brazilian Cement Industry," STICERD - Economics of Industry Papers 38, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    14. Domenico Marchetti, 2002. "Markups and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Branches," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 87-103, January.
    15. Lambertini, Luca, 2010. "Make vs buy in a monopoly with demand or cost uncertainty," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 101-109, June.
    16. Zava Aydemir & Stefan Buehler, 2002. "Estimating Vertical Foreclosure in U.S. Gasoline Supply," SOI - Working Papers 0212, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    17. Broll, Udo & Wahl, Jack E. & Wessel, Christoph, 2008. "Export production, hedging exchange rate risk: the duopoly case," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 06/08, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
    18. Nishimura, Kiyohiko G. & Ohkusa, Yasushi & Ariga, Kenn, 1999. "Estimating the mark-up over marginal cost: a panel analysis of Japanese firms 1971-1994," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(8), pages 1077-1111, November.
    19. Anna Bottasso & Marzio Galeotti & Alessandro Sembenelli, 1997. "The Impact Of Financing Constraints On Markups: Theory And Evidence From Italian Firm Level Data," CERIS Working Paper 199706, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    20. Janssen, Maarten C.W. & Karamychev, Vladimir A., 2009. "Auctions, aftermarket competition, and risk attitudes," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 274-285, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Oligopoly; risk aversion; fixed costs; strategic investment; second order stochastic dominance; background risk; market risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:hastef:0069. 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: Helena Lundin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erhhsse.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.