The related phenomena of learning curve and network effects are quite common in oligopolistic markets. In this context the present paper discusses the incentives of a technological leader to share its exclusive technology with potential competitors. An alliance may be preferable because partner...

We consider price setting strategic behavior in the market for quality-differentiated goods. In his classic analysis Ricardo showed that at the competition equilibrium the price of marginal unit is driven to zero. An oligopolistic market structure leads to a radically different equilibrium in...

This paper develops a model of successive oligopolies with endogenous market entry, allowing for varying degrees of product differentiation and entry costs in both markets. Our analysis shows that the downstream conditions dominate the overall profitability of the two-tier structure while the...

Imposing a minimum quality standard (MQS) is conventionally regarded as harmful if firms compete in quantities. This, however, ignores its possible dynamic effects. We show that an MQS can hinder collusion, resulting in dynamic welfare gains that reduce and may outweigh the static losses which...

Earlier work characterized pricing with switching costs as a dilemma between a short-term 'harvesting' incentive to increase prices versus a long-term 'investing' incentive to decrease prices. This paper shows that small switching costs may reduce firm profits and provide short-term incentives...

Theoretical literature on collusion has focused on a specific formulation of payoff fluctuations, namely by demand shocks, and showed that payoff fluctuations are bad for collusion. Introducing general payoff fluctuations, we show that (i) payoff fluctuations may strictly reduce the minimum...