Overview
- Introduces a comprehensive model of firm oligopolistic behaviour, with price-quantity competition, nesting a multiplicity of competition regimes, with conduct parameters varying continuously between tacit collusion and cutthroat competition
- Provides an approach by which to empirically measure market power, using a tractable framework that is parsimonious in the parameter space
- Extends the potential applications (in IO, Trade and Macro) and reinforces the general equilibrium dimension of Dixit-Stiglitz (1977) seminal model by assuming non-negligible firms (and hence non-negligible intersectoral effects) and by further exploiting separability with one or more groups of firms
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Table of contents (4 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book provides a methodology for the analysis of oligopolistic markets from an equilibrium viewpoint, considering competition within and between groups of firms. It proposes a well-founded measure of competitive toughness that can be used in empirically relevant applications. This measure reflects the weight put by each firm on competition for market share relative to competition for market size – two dimensions of competition involving conflicting and convergent interests, respectively. It further explores several applications, such as the effect of tougher competition on innovation and of output market power on the emergence of involuntary unemployment, as well as the importance of strategic interactions for investment decisions.
Relative to the dominant model of monopolistic competition, The Economics of Competition, Collusion and In-between aims to explore an alternative tractable model of firm competition opening the application of oligopoly theory to many fields in economics where general equilibrium features are crucial. It will be relevant to those interested in applied industrial organization, trade, macroeconomics (in particular macrodynamics) and quantitative economics.
Reviews
- Jacques-François Thisse, CORE, Université Catholique de Louvain.
“Oligopoly in general equilibrium has proved an elusive goal in theory for decades, with Claude d'Aspremont and Rodolphe Dos Santos Ferreira among the small group of scholars that have taken it seriously. In recent years, the big data revolution has revealed just how important very large firms are, especially in international trade, and has encouraged more work breaking away from the perfectly and monopolistically competitive paradigms. This book could not be more timely therefore, and should be required reading for anyone working in this important field.”
- Peter Neary, Georgetown University Qatar and Merton College, University of Oxford.
“This is an excellent and concise study of the field of imperfect competition in both a general and partial equilibriumsetting by two of the world’s experts in this field. Starting from the basics of Edgeworth and Cournot, the authors gradually build up and extend the framework to include within and between group competition, the intensity of competitive behaviourand general equilibrium Ford effects. Throughout the microfoundations are rigorous and clearly explained, with simple examples and diagrams to illustrate the general insights. I recommend this book to any economist who wants to understand imperfect competition from a theoretical perspective.”
- Huw Dixon, Professor of Economics, Cardiff Business School (Cardiff University)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Claude d’Aspremont is Emeritus Professor in Economics, member and Past-President of the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium. He was awarded the Francqui Prize 1995.
Rodolphe Dos Santos Ferreira is Emeritus Professor in Economics at the University of Strasbourg, France, working at the Bureau d’Economie Théorique et Appliquée (BETA), of which he was co-director (1979-1992). He is also a part-time member of Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Portugal. He is a honorary senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Economics of Competition, Collusion and In-between
Authors: Claude d’Aspremont, Rodolphe Dos Santos Ferreira
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63602-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-63601-2Published: 19 May 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-63604-3Published: 19 May 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-63602-9Published: 18 May 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 160
Number of Illustrations: 13 b/w illustrations
Topics: Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods, Industrial Organization