Bertrand versus Cournot revisited

Summary. Bertrand criticized Cournot's analysis of the competitive process, arguing that firms should be seen as playing a strategy of setting price below competitors' prices (henceforth, the Bertrand strategy) instead of a strategy of accepting the price needed to sell an optimal quantity (the Cournot strategy). We characterize Nash equilibria in a generalized model in which firms choose among Cournot and Bertrand strategies. Best responses always exist in this model. For the duopoly case, we show that iterated best responses converge under mild assumptions on initial states either to Cournot equilibrium or to an equilibrium in which only one firm plays the Bertrand strategy with price equal to marginal cost and that firm has zero sales. Received: December 11, 1995; revised version October 2, 1996     

Australian evidence on student expectations and perceptions of introductory business finance

This study examines the differences in perceptions and expectations between students at the Caulfield and Peninsula campuses of Monash University with different entrance criteria and degree availability to determine whether two different introductory finance subjects should be offered rather than one. Results reported in this study suggest that students at the Caulfield campus are interested in studying a challenging introductory finance subject, whereas students at the Peninsula campus perceived that introductory finance is ‘difficult’. Capital structure and cost of capital topics are statistically significantly ranked higher by Caulfield students than Peninsula students. The results reported in this study revealed that two different introductory finance subjects would be more effective. The core subject at the finance major campus (Caulfield) follows a traditional structure with more emphasis on finance theory, whereas the new subject at the non‐finance campus (Peninsula) places greater emphasis on applications.     

Excellence Revisited

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman's 1982 best-seller, In Search of Excellence, ignited the business book market and altered the managerial debate in companies throughout the world. Twenty years on, the book's contribution to business thinking is being re-evaluated.     

Britsch Guyana in 1878

Enkele dngen vóór het verschijnen dezer Aflevering gewordt ons nevensgaand artikel van den Hr. J. A. T. Cohen Stuart, die reeds vroeger zijne inzigten omtrent de immigratie-kwestie in dit Tijdschrift mededeelde, en wiens jarenlange ambtenaars-loopbaan als administrateur der financien in Suriname hem voorzeker allezins aanspraak geeft, mede gehoord te worden. Ofschoon zijne inzigten geheel van die van mr. S. van Praag verschillen, hebben wij, bij de welligt kort op handen zijnde afdoening van het Immigratieontwerp, om de zoo even gemelde reden gemcend aan het verlangen van den geachten inzender te kunnen toegeven, om ook zijne beschouwingen nog met dit No voor het publiek le brengen,-alzoo het audi et alteram partemgaarne, zooveel doenlijk, ook hier toepassende.