This paper is about a model of Bertrand competition in a homogeneous-good market with free entry of identical firms and variable returns to scale. If the optimum number of active firms in the market is two or more, and the number of active firms is equal to that optimum number, then Bertrand...

We study cartel stability in a differentiated price-setting duopoly with returns to scale. We show that a cartel may be equally stable in the presence of lower differentiation, provided that the decreasing returns parameter is high. In addition we demonstrate that for a given factor of discount,...

In this article we develop a microeconomic framework to study the relationships among privatization, competition for deposits and performance in banking. Particularly, we analyze banking privatization when competitive strategies of the Cournot and Stackelberg types are allowed. Our findings show...

The dynamics of oil prices in the past few years and their vertiginous rise observed during 2008 have captured the attention of academia and governments. This paper proposes an analysis of the petroleum market, making emphasis in the crude benchmarks WTI and Brent, the world reserves...

Chronic renal insufficiency is one of the highest cost pathologies of greater financial impact for the general system of social security health care in Colombia. High-cost case concentration in some health entities made it necessary to distribute resources and patients to other entities in order...

Colombia adopted a health care system with regulated competition in the interaction of several markets: insurance, medical services, hospitalization and drugs. In this regulatory scheme, a collegiate body and two central dependencies of the executive branch intervene. Overall, the regulation...

Taking as a reference a simple oligopoly model with differentiated products, in which there are three firms, the purpose of this paper is to complement the existing literature on mergers by proving that the traditional merger paradox can be avoided by assuming that, after the merger, the merging...

The aim of this paper is to complement the existing literature on horizontal mergers, by setting a Cournot mixed oligopoly model. Specifically, the merger paradox is qualified by proving that a merger could be profitable for the merging firms even if it does not include most market firms....

Taking as a reference a model in which there are a public firm, a national private firm and a foreign private one, it is analyzed both mergers sustainability and their relative effects on welfare. It is proved that the merger between the public firm and either the national or the international...