Random choices of prices and product characteristics can be used by a contestable monopolist to deter entry and fully extract the monopoly rent. We develop this idea in a model of Bertrand price competition. In equilibrium, one firm enters the market and makes choices that are unpredictable to...

Laitinen (1980) derives an input allocation model for a multiproduct firm that first maximizes revenue and second maximizes profit. While theoretically elegant, the model has never been formulated empirically because of the complexity of the model’s price-deflated terms. This paper derives the...

We consider a duopolistic Bertrand competition setting in which competing firms can turn into intermediaries. The intermediation option allows firms to take advantage of the rival firm’s low price. We then give conditions for the existence of equilibrium.

This paper quantifies the effects of drug monopolies and low per-capita income on pharmaceutical prices in developing economies using the example of the antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) used to treat HIV.

Existing hedonic methods cannot be easily adapted to estimate willingness to pay for product characteristics when willingness to pay depends on a very large basket of goods. We show how to marry these methods with revealed preference arguments to estimate bounds on willingness to pay using data...

This paper studies the discriminatory pricing of an intermediate good and compares two models with a different timing of investments undertaken by the downstream firms, before or after the upstream monopolist sets the input prices. When the more efficient downstream firm is charged a higher...

According to the well-known “merger paradox”, in a Cournot market game mergers are generally unprofitable unless most firms merge. The present paper proposes an optimal merger mechanism. With this mechanism mergers are never unprofitable, more profitable than in other known mechanisms, and...

“Overbidding” with respect to risk-neutral Nash predictions in first-price auction experiments has been consistently reported in the literature. One possible explanation for overbidding is that participants in these experiments do not have a clear perception of probabilities, which causes...

Using grocery store data we study the relationship between dispersion and the business cycle. Our findings reveal that overall there is no robust and significant relationship; however, these mask important heterogeneity in the cyclicality of dispersion at the category level.

We present a polynomial time method for identifying the maximal set in excess demand at a given payoff vector. This set can be used in “large” partnership formation problems to identify the minimum element in the set of individually rational payoff vectors at which there is no overdemanded...