IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/dyncon/v32y2008i4p1332-1355.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The long-run benefits of chaos to oligopolistic firms

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Weihong

Abstract

Conventional economic beliefs that 'equilibrium' is better than 'disequilibrium' and 'stability' is better than 'fluctuation' are challenged with a heterogeneous oligopolistic model that consists of a naive firm and a group of sophisticated firms. The naive firm is assumed to adopt a simple Cobweb strategy while the sophisticate firms, who command all market information, form a collusion and best respond the naive firm's current action. When the market equilibrium is unstable, the naive firm is able to turn an explosively diverging market into a bounded but chaotic one by adopting simultaneously a cautious adjustment strategy (that is, limiting the growth rate of output). There exists an upper-bound such that as long as the growth rate does not exceed this bound, the average profits made by all oligopolistic firms are higher than their respective equilibrium profits. Moreover, the average economic surplus can also be higher than the equilibrium surplus. In this sense, chaos is beneficial not only to all oligopolistic firms but also to the economy as a whole.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Weihong, 2008. "The long-run benefits of chaos to oligopolistic firms," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 1332-1355, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:32:y:2008:i:4:p:1332-1355
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165-1889(07)00129-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 1987. "A theory of dynamic oligopoly, III : Cournot competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 947-968, June.
    2. Cars Hommes & Helena Nusse, 1991. "“Period three to period two” bifurcation for piecewise linear models," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 157-169, June.
    3. Richard H. Day, 1983. "The Emergence of Chaos from Classical Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(2), pages 201-213.
    4. Charles R. Frank, 1965. "Entry in a Cournot Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 32(3), pages 245-250.
    5. Schaffer, Mark E., 1989. "Are profit-maximisers the best survivors? : A Darwinian model of economic natural selection," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 29-45, August.
    6. Droste, Edward & Hommes, Cars & Tuinstra, Jan, 2002. "Endogenous fluctuations under evolutionary pressure in Cournot competition," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 232-269, August.
    7. Huang, Weihong, 1995. "Caution implies profit," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 257-277, July.
    8. Michael Kopel, 1997. "Improving the performance of an economic system: Controlling chaos," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 269-289.
    9. John Conlisk, 1983. "Competitive Approximation of a Cournot Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(4), pages 597-607.
    10. William A. Brock & Cars H. Hommes, 1997. "A Rational Route to Randomness," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1059-1096, September.
    11. William A. Brock & Cars H. Hommes, 2001. "A Rational Route to Randomness," Chapters, in: W. D. Dechert (ed.), Growth Theory, Nonlinear Dynamics and Economic Modelling, chapter 16, pages 402-438, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Huang, Weihong, 2005. "On the statistical dynamics of economics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 543-565, April.
    13. Weddepohl, Claus, 1995. "A cautious price adjustment mechanism: Chaotic behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 293-300, July.
    14. Huang, Weihong & Zhang, Yang, 2007. "Distributional dynamics of cautious economic adjustment processes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 389-407, March.
    15. R. J. Ruffin, 1971. "Cournot Oligopoly and Competitive Behaviour," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(4), pages 493-502.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tuinstra, Jan & Wegener, Michael & Westerhoff, Frank, 2014. "Positive welfare effects of trade barriers in a dynamic partial equilibrium model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 246-264.
    2. HUANG Weihong, 2009. "Relative Profitability of Dynamic Walrasian Strategies," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 0903, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    3. HUANG Weihong, 2009. "Price-taking Strategy Versus Dynamic Programming in Oligopoly," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 0904, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    4. Huang, Weihong, 2010. "On the complexity of strategy-switching dynamics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 445-460, September.
    5. Huang, Weihong, 2011. "Price-taking behavior versus continuous dynamic optimizing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 37-50.
    6. Liu, Cui & He, Rui-chun & Zhou, Wei & Li, Hui, 2021. "Dynamic analysis of airline bidding game based on nonlinear cost," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 565(C).
    7. Anufriev, Mikhail & Kopányi, Dávid, 2018. "Oligopoly game: Price makers meet price takers," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 84-103.
    8. Yu, Weisheng & Yu, Yu, 2014. "The complexion of dynamic duopoly game with horizontal differentiated products," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 289-297.
    9. Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca, 2012. "The dynamics of a differentiated duopoly with quantity competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 421-427.
    10. Angelini, Natascia & Dieci, Roberto & Nardini, Franco, 2009. "Bifurcation analysis of a dynamic duopoly model with heterogeneous costs and behavioural rules," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 79(10), pages 3179-3196.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Weihong & Zhang, Yang, 2007. "Distributional dynamics of cautious economic adjustment processes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 389-407, March.
    2. Gian Italo Bischi & Fabio Lamantia & Davide Radi, 2018. "Evolutionary oligopoly games with heterogeneous adaptive players," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume I, chapter 12, pages 343-370, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Sarah Mignot & Fabio Tramontana & Frank Westerhoff, 2024. "Complex dynamics in a nonlinear duopoly model with heuristic expectation formation and learning behavior," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 337(3), pages 809-834, June.
    4. Alexeeva, Tatyana A. & Kuznetsov, Nikolay V. & Mokaev, Timur N., 2021. "Study of irregular dynamics in an economic model: attractor localization and Lyapunov exponents," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Matsumoto, Akio, 2005. "Density function of piecewise linear transformation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 631-653, April.
    6. Bischi, Gian Italo & Naimzada, Ahmad K. & Sbragia, Lucia, 2007. "Oligopoly games with Local Monopolistic Approximation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 371-388, March.
    7. Hommes, Cars & Huang, Hai & Wang, Duo, 2005. "A robust rational route to randomness in a simple asset pricing model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1043-1072, June.
    8. Neugart, Michael, 2004. "Complicated dynamics in a flow model of the labor market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 193-213, February.
    9. Tamotsu Onozaki, 2018. "Nonlinearity, Bounded Rationality, and Heterogeneity," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-4-431-54971-0, December.
    10. Tuinstra, J., 2000. "Price adjustment in a model of monopolistic competition," CeNDEF Working Papers 00-13, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Center for Nonlinear Dynamics in Economics and Finance.
    11. F. Cavalli & A. Naimzada & M. Pireddu, 2017. "An evolutive financial market model with animal spirits: imitation and endogenous beliefs," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 1007-1040, November.
    12. Hommes, Cars H., 2006. "Heterogeneous Agent Models in Economics and Finance," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 23, pages 1109-1186, Elsevier.
    13. Cars H. Hommes & Marius I. Ochea & Jan Tuinstra, 2018. "Evolutionary Competition Between Adjustment Processes in Cournot Oligopoly: Instability and Complex Dynamics," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 822-843, December.
    14. He, Xue-Zhong & Westerhoff, Frank H., 2005. "Commodity markets, price limiters and speculative price dynamics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1577-1596, September.
    15. Alexeeva, Tatyana A. & Barnett, William A. & Kuznetsov, Nikolay V. & Mokaev, Timur N., 2020. "Dynamics of the Shapovalov mid-size firm model," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    16. Anufriev, Mikhail & Kopányi, Dávid & Tuinstra, Jan, 2013. "Learning cycles in Bertrand competition with differentiated commodities and competing learning rules," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 2562-2581.
    17. Michael Neugart & Jan Tuinstra, 2003. "Endogenous fluctuations in the demand for education," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 29-51, February.
    18. Waltman, Ludo & Kaymak, Uzay, 2008. "Q-learning agents in a Cournot oligopoly model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 3275-3293, October.
    19. Chian, Abraham C.-L. & Rempel, Erico L. & Rogers, Colin, 2006. "Complex economic dynamics: Chaotic saddle, crisis and intermittency," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1194-1218.
    20. Schmitt, Noemi & Westerhoff, Frank, 2015. "Managing rational routes to randomness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 157-173.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:32:y:2008:i:4:p:1332-1355. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.