Lecture eight © copyright : qinwang 2013 Qinwang@mail.shufe.edu.cn SHUFE school of international...

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Lecture eight

© copyright : qinwang 2013Qinwang@mail.shufe.edu.cn  

SHUFE school of international business

Oligopolistic Markets

Color film in US ( 1999 )KodakFUJI FILM

6520

Auto in US ( 2001 )GMFortChryslerToyotaHonda

28251697

Soft drink ( 1999 )CocacolaPepsi

4531

sport shoes ( 1998 )NikeReebokAdidas

47167

Beer in US ( 1998 )Anheuser-buschSABMillerAdolph Coors

452310

The trend of market structure

P311

P313

Firm decision in oligopoly

Cournot duopoly model Kinked demand curve model Price leadership model Cartel

Cournot duopoly model (1938)

Hypothesis :(1) Two firms with same product

(2)Each firm chooses it’s production to achieve profit maximum on the base of other firm’s production

Reaction curve

q1

q2

a-c

(a-c)/2

firm1

firm2

kinked demand curve model: Sweezy model

When the firm falls its price, other firms is following

When the firm rises its price, other firms is not following

P

Q

P3

Q3

d

D

P1

P2

Q1 Q2

A

K

D

0Q

0P

P

0 Q

A

BMR

1MC

2MC

3MC

AMR

BMR

BA MRMCMR

Price is stick in oligopoly market,

the firm’s MR:

Then the price is stick at P0.

Price leadership model

Barometric price leadership:one firm in the industry initiates a price change and the others may or may follow.

Dominant price-leadership model: there is one dominant firm in the industry that sets the price and then all the other firms in the industry behave like perfectly competitive price-taking firms.

Cartel

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

---Adam smithAn Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of

the Wealth of Nations

Cartel model

A cartel is a formal (explicit) agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production.

Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products.

The aim of collusion (also called the cartel agreement) is to increase individual members' profits by reducing competition.

Types of cartel

Price cartel: basic cartel model; the purpose: high monopoly price, fixed price or low price to squeeze non-cartel member.

Industry output cartel: control supply to raise the price.

After sale service cartel: agreement on after-sales service & support, such as rebate, Payment,etc.

Technology cartel: technology alliance Syndicat: all members with the same

channel of sale and procedure.

Founding condition of cartel

Cartel has the ability to rise industrial price.

Cartel member may not be punished by anti-trust law.

The organizing cost and governing cost of cartel is low : 1.small number of firms;2.highly centralizaed industry;3.homegenous products; 4. industry association

Decision in cartel C ,P

Q

MC MC1 MC2

MR

D

q

C

q

C

P0

Q0 q1 q2

cartel Member 1 Member 2

Cartel is trustable?

Number and size distribution of sellers Product heterogeneity Cost structure Size and frequency of orders Threat of retaliation Percentage of external output

New entrants Motivation to cheat other members Anti-trust law

Sherman antitrust act in USAnti-trust law in China

Case: Cocacola and Huiyuan

Strategic behavior

The competition based on game theory

For all firms in an oligopoly to be predicting correctly each others’

decisions

Game theory were set up by Von. Neumann (mathematician) and Morgenstern (economist) in1944, now it is applied to economy, military, politics, biology, etc.

Nobel economic prize winner

1994 , J.Nash(<Beauty mind> , 2002 ) 、 J.Harsanyi and Reinharn Selten, for their contribution in game theory and economic application.

1996, James A. Mirrlees and William Vickrey for mechanism design under asymmetric information

2001,George A. Akerlof, Joseph E.Stiglitz, A. Michael Spence, information economics;

2005,Robert John Aumann, Thomas C. Schelling; 2007,Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin, Roger B.

Myerson, mechanism design.

John.F.J.Nash Born in 1928 1950, graduated

from Princeton, PhD in mathematics

Professor in MIT , now in Princeton

Books and papers : Equilibrium points in n-

person games. 1950 Non-cooperation game,

1951

Game model

Components of a game : players ; actions ;information sets; payoffs; playing sequence; strategies; equilibrium strategy.

Types : Cooperative Game and non-Cooperative Game One-time game and repeated game ; Two-person game and n-person game ; Zero-sum game and non-zero-sum game Sequential move and simultaneous move game

1. Prisoners’ Dilemma

Prisoners’ Dilemma

All rivals have dominant strategies Always provide best outcome no matter

what decisions rivals make When one exists, the rational decision

maker always follows its dominant strategy

In dominant strategy equilibrium, all are worse off than if they had cooperated in making their decisions

Nash Equilibrium

what I would do is the best one given what you would do; what you would do is the best one given what I would do.

我所做的是给定你所做的我所能做的最好的 ; 你所做的是给定我所做的你所能做的最好的

Set of actions or decisions for which all managers are choosing their best actions given the actions they expect their rivals to choose

Applications

Public goods : public green area;

Military competition : unclear deterrent;

institutions ( WTO, Traffic Rules ) M&A : Pac-man defense Price war

2. Pigs’ payoff

Applications

Innovation of big firm and small firm Shareholder(large share and

small share)`s governance motivation in public company

WTO negotiation: US and China OPEC member`s production

decision

3.Games of battle of sex

Simultaneous-move game With multiple Nash equilibrium, no way to

predict the likely outcome

Sequential game One firm makes its decision first, then a rival

firm, knowing the action of the first firm, makes its decision

Game Tree: Shows firms decisions as nodes with branches extending from the nodes

2 1

Panel A – Game treeRoll-back solution

boy 1

Football2

2Ballet

girl

girl

Football

Football

Ballet

Ballet0 0

0 0

1 2

First-Mover & Second-Mover Advantages

First-mover advantage If letting rivals know what you are doing by

going first in a sequential decision increases your payoff

Second-mover advantage If reacting to a decision already made by a

rival increases your payoff Determine whether the order of decision making

can be confer an advantage Apply roll-back method to game trees for each

possible sequence of decisions

Motorola’s technology

Analog Digital

Sony’s technolo

gy

Analog

A $10, $13.75

B $8, $9

Digital

C $9.50, $11

D $11.875, $11.25

First-Mover Advantage in Technology Choice

Panel A – Simultaneous technology decision

S

S

M

M

Panel B – Motorola secures a first-mover advantage

First-Mover Advantage in Technology Choice

Example: product choice

Strategic Moves & Commitments Actions used to put rivals at a disadvantage Three types

Commitments Threats Promises

Only credible strategic moves matter Managers announce or demonstrate to rivals that

they will bind themselves to take a particular action or make a specific decision No matter what action is taken by rivals

Example : commitments

Automobile firm

light-duty vehicle

oversize vehicle

Enginefirm

Small engine 3000 , 6000 3000, 0

Big engine 1000 , 1000 8000 , 3000

Engine firm’s decision

Automobile firm

light-duty vehicle

oversize vehicle

Engine firm

Small engine 0 , 0 0 , 0

Big engine 1000 , 1000 8000 , 3000

Entry game

New enter

EnterDon’t enter

Incumbent

High price (accept)

5 , 1 10, 0

Low price(price war)

3 , -1 4 , 0

New enter

EnterDon’t enter

Incumbent

High price(accept)

2 , 1 7 , 0

Low price(price war)

3 , -1 4 , 0

Threats & Promises

Conditional statements Threats

Explicit or tacit “If you take action A, I will take action B,

which is undesirable or costly to you.” Promises

“If you take action A, I will take action B, which is desirable or rewarding to you.”

Strategic behavior

The firm tries to effect other firms’ expectation on it and then makes the other firms change their decisions. (Schelling,1960)

The firm limits its behavior to limit other firms’ behavior.

Firm behavior in non-cooperative game

Limit pricing Predatory Pricing Spatial preemption Product line expansion Product information notice Capacity expansion Consumer lock-in

Limit Pricing Established firm(s) commits to

setting price below profit-maximizing level to prevent entry Under certain circumstances, an

oligopolist (or monopolist), may make a credible commitment to charge a lower price forever

Predatory pricing

The hypothetical practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market.

If competitors cannot sustain equal or lower prices without losing money, they go out of business or choose not to enter the business.

The predatory merchant then has fewer competitors or is even a de facto monopoly, and hypothetically could then raise prices above what the market would otherwise bear.

Q0

P

SACSMC

D

0Q

0P

Qe

Pe A

Qi =Q0 - Qe

B

Predator`s loss : A+B

plundered firm’s loss : A

Spatial preemption

Schmalensee (1978): an incumbent firm would preempt entry by brand proliferation, that is enter barrier to other competitors.

Product line expansion

Incumbent expands its product line and supply a lot of product portfolio.

Example: Shampoo of P&G

Product information notice

When the time of firm A`s product to market is slower than competitors’, firm A may announce its product information earlier to effect consumer choice

Example: Borland’s Quattro Pro and Microsoft’s excel

Capacity Expansion

Established firm(s) can make the threat of a price cut credible by irreversibly increasing plant capacity

When increasing capacity results in lower marginal costs of production, the established firm’s best response to entry of a new firm may be to increase its own level of production Requires established firm to cut its price to

sell extra output

Increasing competitors’ cost

Increasing salary or input price ; incompatibility ; Increasing switching cost ; ……..

Consumer lock-in : increasing switching cost

Switching cost: The costs incurred when a customer changes from one supplier or marketplace to another.

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