-known commitment problem by introducing communication. Allowing the upstream firm to chat privately with each downstream firm reduces … total offered quantity from near the Cournot level (observed in the absence of communication) halfway toward the monopoly … bargaining advantage from open communication that all of the gains from monopolizing the market accrue to them. A simple …

firms. Communication is often abused for explicit agreements and this strongly reduces competition. …

experiments with written cheap-talk communication between players and we compare them to treatments without the possibility to … tacitly but that the number of firms does not significantly affect outcomes with communication. As a result, the payoff gain … from communication increases with the number of firms, at a decreasing rate. …

This paper studies the impact of software piracy in a two-sidedmarket setting. Software platforms attract developers … higher with more software protection but the impact on user prices is ambiguous. A conflict between platforms and software … developers over software protection may arise: whereas one side benefits from better protection, the other party loses out. Under …

This paper studies the impact of software piracy on prominent and non-prominent software developers in markets based on … prominent software into account. We show that prominent software exhibits higher piracy rates than non-prominent software …. However, contrary to intuition, this does not necessarily mean that prominent software developers benefit more from increased …

-firm Cournot framework to test these predictions, and we also explore the impact communication has on buyer groups. The … experimental results show that buyer groups lead to lower outputs when groups can exclude single firms. Communication is identified … as a main factor causing collusive product markets. -- buyer groups ; cartels ; collusion ; communication ; experiments …

In a Bertrand-oligopoly experiment, firms choose whether or not to engage in cartel-like communication and, if so, they …

We explore the difference between explicit and tacit collusion by investigating the impact communication has in … largest additional profit from talking. We also find that industries continue to collude successfully after communication is … disabled. Communication supports fims in coordinating on collusive pricing schemes, and it is also used for conflict mediation …