IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nan/wpaper/0904.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Price-taking Strategy Versus Dynamic Programming in Oligopoly

Author

Listed:
  • HUANG Weihong

    (Division of Economics,School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Abstract

In a quantity-competed duopoly, one firm is a naive price-taker (who responses only to the last period’s price) while the other has all the market information so as be able to optimize its profit stream (either discounted or un-discounted) dynamically over a finite or infinite horizon. With a traditional linear economy, we are able to derive algebraically the optimal policies of all periods for the dynamic optimizer. A counter-intuitive phenomenon is then observed: regardless of the planning horizon and the discounted factor, there exists a relative profitability range of initial prices, starting with which the price-taker make higher profit than the dynamic optimizer. Furthermore, with the increase in the planning horizon, the price-taker’s relative profitability range increases accordingly and finally covers the entire economically meaningful range.

Suggested Citation

  • HUANG Weihong, 2009. "Price-taking Strategy Versus Dynamic Programming in Oligopoly," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 0904, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:nan:wpaper:0904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/hss2/egc/wp/2009/2009-04.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cyert, Richard M & DeGroot, Morris H, 1973. "An Analysis of Cooperation and Learning in a Duopoly Context," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(1), pages 24-37, March.
    2. Dana, Rose-Anne & Montrucchio, Luigi, 1986. "Dynamic complexity in duopoly games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 40-56, October.
    3. Huang, Weihong, 2008. "The long-run benefits of chaos to oligopolistic firms," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 1332-1355, April.
    4. Dana, Rose-Anne & Montrucchio, Luigi, 1987. "On rational dynamic strategies in infinite horizon models where agents discount the future," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 497-511, September.
    5. Haurie, A., 1976. "Optimal control on an infinite time horizon : The turnpike approach," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 81-102, March.
    6. R. M. Cyert & M. H. DeGroot, 1970. "Multiperiod Decision Models with Alternating Choice as a Solution to the Duopoly Problem," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 410-429.
    7. J. W. Friedman, 1968. "Reaction Functions and the Theory of Duopoly," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 35(3), pages 257-272.
    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. Luciano Fanti, 2015. "Environmental Standards and Cournot Duopoly: A Stability Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(4), pages 577-593, August.
    2. John M. Hartwick & Philip G. Hartwick, 1971. "Duopoly in Space," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 4(4), pages 485-505, November.
    3. Bresnahan, Timothy F. & Trajtenberg, M., 1995. "General purpose technologies 'Engines of growth'?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 83-108, January.
    4. Corchon, Luis C. & Mas-Colell, Andreu, 1996. "On the stability of best reply and gradient systems with applications to imperfectly competitive models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 59-65, April.
    5. Troy Tassier, 2013. "Handbook of Research on Complexity, by J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. and Edward Elgar," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 132-133.
    6. Luis Corchón & Andreu Mas-Colell, 1995. "A Note On Stability Of Best Reply And Gradient Systems With Applications To Imperfectly Competitive Models," Working Papers. Serie AD 1995-18, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    7. Scott McKinney, 1984. "Public Good Producers and Spillovers : An Analysis of Duopoly Behavior," Public Finance Review, , vol. 12(1), pages 97-116, January.
    8. Antonio Doria, Francisco, 2011. "J.B. Rosser Jr. , Handbook of Research on Complexity, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK--Northampton, MA, USA (2009) 436 + viii pp., index, ISBN 978 1 84542 089 5 (cased)," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 196-204, April.
    9. Lau, Sau-Him Paul, 2001. "Aggregate Pattern of Time-dependent Adjustment Rules, II: Strategic Complementarity and Endogenous Nonsynchronization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 199-231, June.
    10. Naqvi, Nadeem, 2010. "A theory of dynamic tariff and quota retaliation," MPRA Paper 27656, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Marc Escrihuela-Villar & Carlos Gutiérrez-Hita, 2018. "A note on the privatization neutrality result with colluding private firms," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(4), pages 2016-2025.
    12. Guillermo Caruana & Liran Einav, 2008. "Production targets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(4), pages 990-1017, December.
    13. Barr, Jason & Saraceno, Francesco, 2009. "Organization, learning and cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 39-53, May.
    14. Simon P Anderson & Jacob K Goeree & Charles A Holt, 2001. "A Thoeretical Anlysis of Altruism and Decision Error in Public Goods Games," Levine's Working Paper Archive 563824000000000075, David K. Levine.
    15. Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca, 2012. "The dynamics of a differentiated duopoly with quantity competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 421-427.
    16. Fabio Lamantia, 2011. "A Nonlinear Duopoly with Efficient Production-Capacity Levels," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 38(3), pages 295-309, October.
    17. Tuinstra, Jan & Wegener, Michael & Westerhoff, Frank, 2014. "Positive welfare effects of trade barriers in a dynamic partial equilibrium model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 246-264.
    18. Randrianarisoa, Laingo M. & Zhang, Anming, 2019. "Adaptation to climate change effects and competition between ports: Invest now or later?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 279-322.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6782 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Eaton, Jonathan & Engers, Maxim, 1992. "Sanctions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 899-928, October.
    21. Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca & Sodini, Mauro, 2012. "Nonlinear dynamics in a Cournot duopoly with relative profit delegation," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 45(12), pages 1469-1478.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economics; dynamic programming; Bellman’s optimality principle; applied OR; duopoly;
    All these keywords.

    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:nan:wpaper:0904. 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: Magdalene Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dentusg.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.