Non-renewable resource Stackelberg games

The market structure for many mineral industries can be described as oligopoly with potential for Stackelberg leadership. This paper derives and analyzes dynamically consistent extraction equilibria in a two-period discrete-time “Truly” Stackelberg (TS) model of non-renewable resource extraction, where firms move sequentially within each period and where both the leader and follower have market power. We show how the leader may be able to manipulate extraction patterns by exploiting resource constraints. Whether the leader wants to speed up its own production relative to the Cournot–Nash (CN) equilibrium depends on the shape of its iso-profit curve, which is affected by the two firms’ relative stock endowments and relative production costs. If the leader extracts faster, then the follower extracts slower, but in aggregate the industry extracts faster. Unlike static Stackelberg games, the follower does not necessarily have a second mover disadvantage.     

Market Instability in a Stackelberg Duopoly

m -period duopoly model with inventory costs, where each firm chooses when to produce. We find that, in contrast to most existing works concerning endogenous roles of the firms, no pure strategy equilibrium exists when m is strictly larger than two. This result indicates that no stable pattern of allocation of roles exists except for a two-period model; thus the leader-follower relationship inevitably becomes instable. Received August 1, 2000; revised version received July 20, 2001     

The benefits of being small: Duopolistic competition with market segmentation

Consider a duopolistic market in which consumers are not necessarily aware of the firms' existence. The market is characterized by the existence of four segments: a duopolistic segment which consists of consumers who are aware of both firms, a segment of consumers who are unaware of either firm and two captive market segments. We assume that by advertising, firms control the proportion of consumers who are aware of their existence. The relative sizes of the four segments affect the equilibrium of the duopolistic pricing game. We show that being large may be disadvantageous, and that even if gaining awareness is costless firms may wish to remain small.We would like to thank Paul Klemperer and an anonymous referee for valuable comments.     

Stackelberg博弈下的MCP竞价上网研究

通过建立一个发电厂、电网公司和电力用户之间的三方两阶段的Stackelberg博弈模型,能够有效的考察作为电力市场领导者的发电厂的持留电量、串谋报高价等机会主义行为,并得出结论:这场以电力市场结构的拆分和重组为特点的"厂网分开,竞价上网"的电力体制改革,如果不能真正减少电力行业的垄断成本,在最终的销售电价没有受到严格规制的情况下,改革虽然有助于控制电力这个高额垄断行业的垄断利润,但是却并没有降低销售电价和提高消费者剩余,因而社会福利在一定程度上反而恶化了.     

Stackelberg竞争条件下的最佳福利关税与最大收入关税

文章考察Stackelberg竞争条件下的最佳福利关税与最大收入关税。分析表明,最佳福利关税与最大收入关税的相对大小主要取决于产品之间的相互关系和国内外企业的成本差异。当产品是互补品时,最佳福利关税总是小于最大收入关税;当产品是替代品时,最佳福利关税与最大收入关税的关系,既取决于产品间的替代程度又取决于国内外企业间的成本差异。产品的替代程度较弱时,最大收入关税总是大于最佳福利关税;产品的替代程度较强时,若国内外厂商间的成本差异越小,则最佳福利关税越有可能超过最大收入关税。     

区域市场"煤电联营"的博弈分析

从产业结构的角度建立基于Stackelberg博弈的煤、电企业联营的收益模型,可分析不同条件下联营的效果,并对收益状况进行理论测算.研究表明,在不考虑形成联营的协调成本与稳定煤电联营的维持成本的情况下,煤、电企业实行联营,通过合理的收益分配,在用户侧电价未放开的情况下,可以保证发电企业的煤炭供应、电网的电量供给和相关利益方的收益增加.     

Learning in asymmetric duopoly markets: competition in information and market correlation

This paper explores experimentation and learning in asymmetric duopoly markets with product differentiation and demand uncertainty. We define the concepts of strategic substitutability and strategic complementarity in information and we show how both the mode of information competition and the transmission of information across markets affect duopoly experimentation. We relate information competition with market competition and we find that, when goods are substitutes and the correlation between market shocks is negative, firms will have a higher incentive to experiment in asymmetric markets than in symmetric ones. The opposite result follows when such correlation is positive. Also, when goods are complements the above findings are reversed.JEL Classification: D83, C72The authors thank partial financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under project B2000-1429, from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under project SEJ2004-07554 and from the “Generalitat Valénciana” under project GRUPOS04/13.     

Environmental Taxes and First-Mover Advantages

This paper studies whether governments prefer to be leaders or followers in environmental policies. To analyze this question I assume transboundary pollution and two countries that have to decide whether to set environmental taxes sequentially or simultaneously. When taxes are set sequentially an effect, denoted as the sequential setting effect, arises that raises the equilibrium taxes. I show that whether governments prefer to be leaders or followers in taxes depends on the degree to which environmental pollution spills over to trading partners. When this overspill is low enough, taxes are strategic complements and both the leader and the follower obtain greater welfare than under a simultaneous tax setting. However, the leader country obtains greater welfare than the follower. In this case, governments set taxes sequentially. When the degree to which environmental pollution spills over to trading partners is high enough, taxes are strategic substitutes and governments set taxes simultaneously. In this case, each government wants to avoid becoming the follower in taxes.     

Subsidizing cooperative and noncooperative R&D in duopoly with spillovers

Comparing the effect on private R&D investments of allowing firms to cooperate in R&D with that of providing R&D subsidies reveals that in general the latter policy is more effective than the former in promoting R&D activity. Analyzing the implementation of both policies simultaneously reveals that subsidizing cooperative and noncooperative R&D leads to the same market outcome. The preferred R&D-stimulating policy is to subsidize optimally an agreement according to which firms only share the outcomes of their independent research.     

Controlling a dam to environmentally acceptable standards through the use of a Decision Support Tool

We aim to establish a simple mathematical tool that could be used to set an appropriate level for the environmental levy which would allow a dam operator to remain profitable, yet also to ensure that the operator's policy is environmentally acceptable. We shall use Bellman's principle of optimality to solve an optimal control problem which will simulate the Station Operator's behaviour. The problem of the Regulatory Authority is multi-criteria and will be solved through aDecision Support Tool. The degree of fulfilment of the criteria will be a function of the target lake level, target extraction rate, and the level of the environmental levy. We will investigate the extent to which the targets are satisfied when the levy is altered.Research supported by VUW Graduate School of Business and Management.