Price competition between firms, from the firms’ perspective, can be similar to the prisoners’ dilemma. The best outcome for all firms would be for all to charge a high price. However, if the other firms charge a high price, any individual firm has incentives to charge a low price and steal the market. Additionally, if any other firm chooses a low price, each firm should charge a low price too so that it doesn’t get priced out of the market. Explain how price-matching (firms announcing a policy where they match the lowest price a customer can find or will honor a competitor’s coupon) can help firms avoid the Nash equilibrium in which they all charge a low price. Is it misleading for a firm to advertise price-matching as being beneficial to consumers? What outcomes of the game are ruled out by the price-matching policy? How does ruling out these outcomes change the game and the decision the firms face?

Price competition between firms, from the firms’ perspective, can be similar to the prisoners’ dilemma. The best outcome for all firms would be for all to charge a high price. However, if the other firms charge a high price, any individual firm has incentives to charge a low price and steal the market. Additionally, if any other firm chooses a low price, each firm should charge a low price too so that it doesn’t get priced out of the market. Explain how price-matching (firms announcing a policy where they match the lowest price a customer can find or will honor a competitor’s coupon) can help firms avoid the Nash equilibrium in which they all charge a low price. Is it misleading for a firm to advertise price-matching as being beneficial to consumers? What outcomes of the game are ruled out by the price-matching policy? How does ruling out these outcomes change the game and the decision the firms face?

Survey Of Economics

10th Edition

ISBN:9781337111522

Author:Tucker, Irvin B.

Publisher:Tucker, Irvin B.

Chapter9: Monopolistic Competition And Oligoply

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 11SQP

See similar textbooks

Similar questions

Price competition between firms, from the firms’ perspective, can be similar to the prisoners’ dilemma. The best outcome for all firms would be for all to charge a high price. However, if the other firms charge a high price, any individual firm has incentives to charge a low price and steal the market. Additionally, if any other firm chooses a low price, each firm should charge a low price too so that it doesn’t get priced out of the market. Explain how price-matching (firms announcing a policy where they match the lowest price a customer can find or will honor a competitor’s coupon) can help firms avoid the Nash equilibrium in which they all charge a low price. Is it misleading for a firm to advertise price-matching as being beneficial to consumers? (Hint: What outcomes of the game are ruled out by the price-matching policy? How does ruling out these outcomes change the game and the decision the firms face?)
In a market there are five firms, all have a total cost curve equal to CT = 2q. The market demand is Q = 500 - 5P. How much profit would each firm get if they collude and share the market equitably? What is the profit to each firm if they agree to collude, but one firm misleads the others charging a slightly lower price? What is the profit if all firms do not collude and compete via price?
There are two soda firms Pepsi and Coke in Bertrand completion . They face demand with the following features: If their price is the lowest Q = 40-.5P, if their price is the same they face demand of half of the market, and if their price is the higher they face demand of zero. Both firms have a marginal cost of 10. Describe each firms reaction functions and the equilibrium price and quantity for each firm. Show your work and clearly mark your answers. Request: Please provide a graph if applicable and don't provide the handwritten answer. Thank you! Your help is much appreciated!
Q3. There are two firms selling differentiated products. Firm A faces the following demand for his product: e, = 20 – -P, + -P, 2. Firm B faces the following demand: 1 P. +-P, 2. 0, = 220- Assume that the marginal cost is zero both for firm A and firm B. What are the equilibrium prices of a simultaneous price competition? What would the equilibrium prices be if A is the leader and B is the follower?
Firm 1 and firm 2 are Bertrand duopoloists. Firm 1 has a marginal cost of $6.00 per unit, and firm 2 has a marginal cost of $8.01 per unit. The demand for their product is p=23.00−Q, where Q is the total quantity demanded. How much does each firm sell in equilibrium? Assume that prices can only be set to the nearest cent, firms split the market if they set the same price, and there are no fixed costs. Firm 1 production:______ Firm 2 production:______ What are the profits for each firm in equilibrium? Firm 1 profit: $______ Firm 2 profit: $______
Consider the following market demand function: Q= 20-2P, where P is the market price. Suppose there are two firms- A,B in the market and they have the same cost function: the per unit cost of producing output is 4. The firms compete by choosing quantities. Find the reaction functions for both the firms if they are maximizing profits. What is the profit maximizing output for each firm and corresponding market price? If there was only one firm in the market how would your answer change?
Q. Three firms operate in a market with a Demand function p = 169 - 2Q. All three firms have identical Cost functions: TC = 1200 - 95q + 2q2.i) Given that the firms are able to collude, what is the equilibrium market price and output?ii) If all of the firms cheat and each increases output by two units, what would be the new equilibrium price and the impact on an individual firm’s profits?
Two firms - firm 1 and firm 2 - share a market for a specific product. Both have zero marginal cost. They compete in the manner of Bertrand and the market demand for the product is given by: q = 20 − min{p1, p2}. 1. What are the equilibrium prices and profits? 2. Suppose the two firms have signed a collusion contract, that is, they agree to set the same price and share the market equally. What is the price they would set and what would be their profits? For the following parts, suppose the Bertrand game is played for infinitely many times with discount factor for both firms δ ∈ [0, 1). 3. Let both players adopt the following strategy: start with collusion; maintain the collusive price as long as no one has ever deviated before; otherwise set the Bertrand price. What is the minimum value of δ for which this is a SPNE. 4. Suppose the policy maker has imposed a price floor p = 4, that is, neither firm is allowed to set a price below $4. How does your answer to part 3 change? Is it now…
Gamma and Zeta are the only two widget manufacturers in the world. Each firm has a cost function given by: C(q) = 10+20q + q^2, where q is number of widgets produced. The market demand for widgets is represented by the inverse demand equation: P = 200 - 2Q where Q = q1 + q2 is total output. Suppose that each firm maximizes its profits taking its rival's output as given (i.e. the firms behave as Cournot oligopolists). a) What will be the equilibrium quantity selected by each firm? What is the market price? What is the profit level for each firm? Equilibrium quantity for each firm__ price__ profit__ b) It occurs to the managers of Gamma and Zeta that they could do a lot better by colluding. If the two firms were to collude in a symmetric equilibrium, what would be the profit-maximizing choice of output for each firm? What is the industry price? What is the profit for each firm in this case? Equilibrium quantity for each firm__ price__ profit__ c) What minimum discount factor is required…
There are two firms selling differentiated products. Firm A faces the following demand for his product: QA=20-1/2PA+1/4PB Firm B faces the following demand: QB=220-1/2PB+1/4PA PA represents the price set by firm A. PB represents the price set by firm B.Assume that the marginal cost is zero both for firm A and firm B.What are the equilibrium prices of a simultaneous price competition?What would the equilibrium prices be if A is the leader and B is the follower?
Suppose we have two identical firms A and B, selling identical products. They are the only firms in the market and compete by choosing quantities at the same time. The Market demand curve is given by P=477-Q. The only cost is a constant marginal cost of $16. Suppose Firm A produces a quantity of 66 and Firm B produces a quantity of 49. If Firm A decides to increase its quantity by 1 unit while Firm B continues to produce the same 49 units, what is the Marginal Revenue for Firm A from this extra unit? Enter a number only, no $ sign. Don't forget to include the negative sign if revenue decreases.
There are only two driveway paving companies in a small town, Asphalt, Inc. and Blacktop Bros. The inverse demand curve for the services is ? = 2040 − 20?where quantity is measured in pave jobs per month and price, in dollars per job. The firms have an identical marginal cost of $200 per driveway. If the two firms collude, splitting the work and profits evenly, how many driveways will each firm pave, and at what price? How much profit will each firm make? Does Asphalt have an incentive to cheat by paving one more driveway each month? Show it numerically.