We examine a market in which consumers are forced to rely on noisy price signals to select between homogeneous products. The noise originates either from firms' price obfuscation or consumers' bounded information processing capabilities. Standard models and empirical experiments of markets with...

Cost asymmetry is generally thought to hinder collusion because a more efficient firm has both more to gain from a deviation and less to fear from retaliation than less efficient firms. Our paper reexamines this conventional wisdom and characterizes optimal collusion without any prior...

It is usually believed that higher competition, implying more active firms, benefits consumers. We show that this may not be the case in an industry with asymmetric cost firms. A rise in the number of more cost inefficient firms makes the consumers worse-off in the presence of a welfare...

Unbundling of the local loop (ULL) has seen quite different "success stories" in the various countries across Europe. Although the obligation for the provision of ULL was implemented in the regulatory framework early and mostly parallel to other means of liberalisation, national implementation...

This article is aimed at analyzing the motivations on the part of firms to invest in websites. What are the drivers behind such investments? In order to address this issue, we have considered two alternative theoretical frameworks. The first relies upon resourcebased theory; the approach herein...

This paper addresses the question of what options are available to regulate the sector in the near future. In order to answer this question, the paper focuses on the problem of investment and innovation in an ex ante regulated sector. Relying on existing literature, we argue that ex ante...

P2P networks have mainly been used for downloading cultural goods. This sociological research focuses on the practices and norms of users and designers. Drawing on a qualitative survey, it explores the many ways sharing takes place. It looks at P2P networks as file sharing communities and probes...

We present a continuous-time generalization of the seminal R&D model of d’Aspremont and Jacquemin (American Economic Review, Vol. 78, No. 5) to examine the trade-off between the benefits of allowing firms to cooperate in R&D and the corresponding increased potential for product market...

The article focuses on the emergence and operation of cartels in sectors in which companies differ in terms of production costs. The author shows that stable cartels can operate in sectors made up of enterprises that are heterogeneous in terms of costs and based on price leadership. However,...

This paper deals with the issue of transparency in the pricing process for motor fuels, vis-à-vis the collusion charges between oil companies (for which no evidence is found) and the «myth» of «one» national price for motor fuels. Such an approach ignores both the competition between oil...