The authors construct a model of the electric power industry which consists of two utilities faced with uncertain demand and a variety of regulatory regimes. Two technologies are considered, base-load and peaking, and the transfer of bulk electricity among utilities is permitted. The purpose of...

A firm in a duopolistic market in which there is incomplete information about cost may benefit from having less precise prior information than its competitor. Experience in production provides firms with internally generated private signals about cost. As a result, the marginal return to...

In this paper, the author demonstrates, through an example, that, in oligopolistic markets, it is only in special cases that warranties can serve as signals of quality. Warranties are perfect signals only in cases in which the intrinsic attributes of products are neither too clustered nor too...

We examine incentives for nonconsolidating horizontal mergers in commercial media industries. In a model with differentiated media and products, we show that such a merger is profitable if merging media firms gain a relative bargaining advantage vis-à-vis advertisers in the negotiations for...

In oligopolistic markets where competition is in prices, producers may prefer to be represented by agents that sell their products, even if those agents do not provide any direct services to promote the sale of the product and even if contracting is costly. Contracting with the agents serves as...