Competition typically involves two main dimensions, a rivalry for resources and the ranking of relative performances … sometimes underperform under– competition. It has been argued that adapting the institutions under which competition takes place …

contracting to a pre-existing spot market. We deal separately with the cases where spot market competition is in quantities and … types of competition the introduction of a forward market significantly lowers prices. The combination of supply function … competition with a forward market leads to high efficiency levels. …

We study the effects of competition in a context in which people's actions can not be contractually fixed. We find that … in such an environment the very presence of competition does neither increase efficiency nor does it yield any payoff … gains for the short side of the market. We also find that competition has a strong negative impact on social well-being, the …