scholarly journals Codetermination, Price Competition and the Network Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. e795-e830
Author(s):  
Luciano Fanti ◽  
Luca Gori

Abstract This research develops a tractable two-stage non-cooperative game with complete information describing the behaviour of price-setting firms that must choose to be profit maximisers or bargainers under codetermination in a network industry with horizontal product differentiation. The existing theoretical literature has already shown that codetermination might arise as the endogenous market outcome in a strategic competitive quantity-setting duopoly. In sharp contrast with this result, the present article shows that codetermination does never emerge as a Nash equilibrium in a price-setting non-network duopoly. Then, it aims at highlighting the role of network externalities in determining changes of paradigm of the game and letting codetermination become a sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium when prices are strategic substitutes or strategic complements. This equilibrium may be Pareto efficient. Results allow distinguishing between mandatory codetermination and voluntary codetermination. The article also proposes a model of endogenous codetermination according to which every firm may choose to bargain with its own corresponding union bargaining unit only whether the firm’s bargaining strength is exactly the profit-maximising one. The equilibrium outcomes emerging in this case range from a uniform Nash equilibrium, in which both firms are codetermined, to mixed Nash equilibria, in which only one of them chooses to be codetermined. These results are ‘network depending’ and do not hold in a non-network duopoly.

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Conrad

Abstract The objective of our approach is to develop a model that captures horizontal product differentiation under environmental awareness with price competition whereby environmentally friendly products are costlier to produce. As an example, we refer to automobile producers offering cars with a gasoline-powered engine and one with a natural gas-powered engine. The network of petrol stations provides the complementary good. We use a two-stage game in prices and characteristics to analyse the market structure. In order to find out whether a private decision on the type of engine coincides with a socially optimal product differentiation, we determine the position of the two types of engine by a welfaremaximizing authority.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1001-1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
R E Kuenne

One of the most pervasive characteristics of mature oligopolistic industries is their reluctance to engage in price competition, and their channeling of competitive efforts into rivalry using advertising and other marketing costs as well as product differentiation. This leads to questions concerning the nature of the economic and social matrix within which such firms operate, and these questions in turn motivate the theorist to construct frameworks that yield such results. Spatial proximity has generally been accepted as an intensifier of price competition, but in many local oligopolistic markets it seems to act as an inhibitor of price competition. In this paper I attempt to study the role of uncertainty in explaining the ‘rivalrous consonance of interests’ which tends to keep prices above the competitive level in spatially concentrated markets. By using Weibull density functions to approximate subjective expectations of firms, I seek to cast light upon some of the factors that play a role in explaining this apparent paradox.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Askar ◽  
A. Al-khedhairi

Many researchers have used quadratic utility function to study its influences on economic games with product differentiation. Such games include Cournot, Bertrand, and a mixed-type game called Cournot-Bertrand. Within this paper, a cubic utility function that is derived from a constant elasticity of substitution production function (CES) is introduced. This cubic function is more desirable than the quadratic one besides its amenability to efficiency analysis. Based on that utility a two-dimensional Cournot duopoly game with horizontal product differentiation is modeled using a discrete time scale. Two different types of games are studied in this paper. In the first game, firms are updating their output production using the traditional bounded rationality approach. In the second game, firms adopt Puu’s mechanism to update their productions. Puu’s mechanism does not require any information about the profit function; instead it needs both firms to know their production and their profits in the past time periods. In both scenarios, an explicit form for the Nash equilibrium point is obtained under certain conditions. The stability analysis of Nash point is considered. Furthermore, some numerical simulations are carried out to confirm the chaotic behavior of Nash equilibrium point. This analysis includes bifurcation, attractor, maximum Lyapunov exponent, and sensitivity to initial conditions.


Author(s):  
Georges Sarafopoulos ◽  
Kosmas Papadopoulos

In this article, the authors investigate the dynamics of two oligopoly games. In the first game, they consider a nonlinear Cournot-type duopoly game with homogeneous goods and same rational expectations. The authors investigate the case, where managers have a variety of attitudes toward relative performance that are indexed by their type. In the second game they consider a Cournot-Bertrand duopoly game with linear demand, quadratic cost function and differentiated goods. In the two games they suppose a linear demand and a quadratic cost function. The games are modeled with a system of two difference equations. Existence and stability of equilibria of the systems are studied. The authors show that the models gives more complex, chaotic and unpredictable trajectories, as a consequence of change in the parameter k of speed of the player's adjustment (in the first game) and in the parameter d of the horizontal product differentiation (in the second game). The authors prove that the variation of the parameter k (resp. d) destabilizes the Nash equilibrium via a period doubling bifurcation (resp. through a Neimark-Sacker bifurcation). The chaotic features are justified numerically via computing Lyapunov numbers and sensitive dependence on initial conditions. In the second game they show that in the case of a quadratic cost there are stable trajectories and a higher or lower degree of product differentiation does not tend to destabilize the economy. They verify these results through numerical simulations. Finally, the authors control the chaotic behavior of the games introducing a new parameter. For some values of this parameter, the Nash equilibrium is stable for every value of the main parameter k or d.


Author(s):  
Ксения Ивановна Голубцова

Статья посвящена рассмотрению проблем профилактики преступлений оперативными подразделениями исправительных учреждений (далее - ИУ). Автор, раскрывая роль оперативных отделов ИУ в общей профилактике правонарушений, указывает на ее двоякость, поскольку, с одной стороны, рассматриваемые подразделения обладают значительным преимуществом перед другими службами учреждения в выявлении негативных факторов (негласный метод получения оперативно значимой информации), с другой стороны - далеко не все условия, которые способствуют совершению преступлений в ИУ, можно устранить оперативным путем. Изучение специальной литературы позволило выявить в деятельности начальников ИУ определенные проблемы, связанные с оценкой состояния оперативной обстановки в ИУ, сложившейся ситуации; с отсутствием прогноза развития криминогенной ситуации в ИУ, а также с профессиональной некомпетентностью руководителей, неумением объективно оценивать результаты деятельности структурных подразделений. Автор особое внимание уделяет анализу статистических данных о совершенных и предотвращенных преступлениях лицами, находящимися в местах лишения свободы. The article is devoted to the consideration of problems of crime prevention by operational units of correctional institutions (hereinafter referred to as IA). The author, revealing the role of the operational departments of the IA in the general prevention of offences, points to its twofold. On the one hand, the units under consideration have significant advantages over other services of the institution in identifying negative factors (these are tacit methods of obtaining promptly meaningful information). On the other hand, not all conditions conducive to the commission of crimes in IA can be eliminated by operational means: For example, shortcomings in the activities of other departments and services (security department, duty shift, etc.). The study of special literature has made it possible to identify problems in the activities of heads of correctional institutions in the sphere of implementation of solutions in case of lack of objective and complete information on the state of the operational situation in IA, the current situation, the results of the activities of structural subdivisions; No forecast of the development of the crime situation in IE; Professional incompetence of managers, inability to objectively assess the results of activities of structural subdivisions. The author pays particular attention to the analysis of statistics on crimes committed and prevented by persons in detention.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 869-876
Author(s):  
Samanta Salvi ◽  
Vincenza Conteduca ◽  
Cristian Lolli ◽  
Sara Testoni ◽  
Valentina Casadio ◽  
...  

Background: Adaptive upregulation of Androgen Receptor (AR) is the most common event involved in the progression from hormone sensitive to Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC). AR signaling remains the main target of new AR signalling-directed therapies such as abiraterone and enzalutamide in CRPC patients. Objective: In this review, we discuss general mechanisms of resistance to AR-targeted therapies, with a focus on the role of AR Copy Number (CN). We reported methods and clinical applications of AR CN evaluation in tissue and liquid biopsy, thus to have a complete information regarding its role as predictive and prognostic biomarker. Conclusion: Outcomes of CRPC patients are reported to be highly variable as the consequence of tumor heterogeneity. AR CN could contribute to patient selection and tumor monitoring in CRPC treated with new anti-cancer treatment as abiraterone and enzalutamide. Further studies to investigate AR CN effect to these agents and its potential combination with other prognostic or predictive clinical factors are necessary in the context of harmonized clinical trial design.


Author(s):  
Marc Baudry ◽  
Adrien Hervouet

AbstractThis article deals with the impact of legal rules on incentives in the seeds sector to create new plant varieties. The first category of rules consists in intellectual property rights and is intended to address a problem of sequential innovation and R&D effort. The second category concerns commercial rules that are intended to correct a problem of adverse selection. We propose a dynamic model of market equilibrium with vertical product differentiation that enables us to take into account the economic consequences of imposing either Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBRs) or patents as IPRs and either compulsory registration in a catalog or minimum standards as commercialization rules. The main result is that the combination of catalog registration and PBRs adopted in Europe is hardly supported by the model calibrated on data for wheat in France.


Author(s):  
Violeta Bashova ◽  

Development in the spa industry is going through difficulties caused by the world situation of tourism recovery. In days of compliance with anti-epidemic measures and social distance, the restoration of the spa offer will be based on innovative solutions for diversity in the spa services and products. This is the challenge of more enterprising and resourceful professionals in business to avoid the struggle for survival. One of their main fulcrums is reorientation towards non-price competition, which is based on the distinctive features of the product. Either it consists of innovative product design or mere market segmentation, product differentiation typically involves externalities across competitors, which clearly play an important role in firm's competitive incentives to invest in differentiation. The purpose of this report is through research and analysis of supply and development in spas, to prove the hypothesis that the diversity of spa products and services is fundamental to recovering in a highly competitive and further financially aggravated, current environment in tourism.


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