IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jetheo/v154y2014icp112-125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Free entry versus socially optimal entry

Author

Listed:
  • Amir, Rabah
  • De Castro, Luciano
  • Koutsougeras, Leonidas

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the well-known comparison of equilibrium entry levels into a Cournot industry under free entry, second best (control of entry but not production) and first best (control of entry and production). Allowing for the possibility of limited increasing returns to scale in production, this paper generalizes the conclusion of Mankiw and Whinston (1986) [10], that under business-stealing competition, free entry yields more firms than the second-best solution. We also show that under-entry always holds under business-enhancing competition. This confirms the general intuition given by Mankiw and Whinston, which does not rely on the convexity of the cost function. The same result is shown to extend (at a similar level of generality) to the comparison between free entry and the first best socially optimal solution, irrespective of business-stealing. Three illustrative examples are provided, one showing that the second-best and free entry solutions may actually coincide.

Suggested Citation

  • Amir, Rabah & De Castro, Luciano & Koutsougeras, Leonidas, 2014. "Free entry versus socially optimal entry," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 112-125.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:154:y:2014:i:c:p:112-125
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2014.09.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022053114001240
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jet.2014.09.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Kotaro Suzumura & Kazuharu Kiyono, 1987. "Entry Barriers and Economic Welfare," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(1), pages 157-167.
    2. William Novshek, 1985. "On the Existence of Cournot Equilibrium," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 52(1), pages 85-98.
    3. Federico Echenique, 2002. "Comparative Statics by Adaptive Dynamics and the Correspondence Principle," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 833-844, March.
    4. Rabah Amir & Val E. Lambson, 2000. "On the Effects of Entry in Cournot Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 67(2), pages 235-254.
    5. Amir, Rabah & Lambson, Val E., 2003. "Entry, exit, and imperfect competition in the long run," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 191-203, May.
    6. Edlin, Aaron S. & Shannon, Chris, 1998. "Strict Monotonicity in Comparative Statics," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 201-219, July.
    7. Diewert, Walter E & Wales, Terence J, 1987. "Flexible Functional Forms and Global Curvature Conditions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 43-68, January.
    8. Amir, Rabah, 1996. "Sensitivity analysis of multisector optimal economic dynamics," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 123-141.
    9. repec:bla:jindec:v:46:y:1998:i:3:p:317-32 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Roberts, John & Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1976. "On the existence of Cournot equilbrium without concave profit functions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 112-117, August.
    11. Milgrom, Paul & Shannon, Chris, 1994. "Monotone Comparative Statics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(1), pages 157-180, January.
    12. Ann F. Friedlaender & Clifford Winston & Kung Wang, 1983. "Costs, Technology, and Productivity in the U.S. Automobile Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, Spring.
    13. Ewerhart, Christian, 2014. "Cournot games with biconcave demand," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 37-47.
    14. Ramey, Valerie A, 1991. "Nonconvex Costs and the Behavior of Inventories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(2), pages 306-334, April.
    15. Perry, Martin K, 1984. "Scale Economies, Imperfect Competition, and Public Policy," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 313-333, March.
    16. Amir, R., 1996. "Cournot oligopoly and theory of supermodular games," LIDAM Reprints CORE 1228, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    17. N. Gregory Mankiw & Michael D. Whinston, 1986. "Free Entry and Social Inefficiency," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 48-58, Spring.
    18. Vives, Xavier, 1990. "Nash equilibrium with strategic complementarities," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 305-321.
    19. Amir, Rabah, 1996. "Cournot Oligopoly and the Theory of Supermodular Games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 132-148, August.
    20. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "Rationalizability, Learning, and Equilibrium in Games with Strategic Complementarities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(6), pages 1255-1277, November.
    21. 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.
    22. Donald M. Topkis, 1978. "Minimizing a Submodular Function on a Lattice," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 305-321, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Amir, Rabah & De Castro, Luciano, 2017. "Nash equilibrium in games with quasi-monotonic best-responses," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 220-246.
    2. Rabah Amir, "undated". "Market Structure, Scale Economies and Industry Performance," CIE Discussion Papers 2000-03, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics.
    3. Amir, Rabah & Lazzati, Natalia, 2011. "Network effects, market structure and industry performance," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(6), pages 2389-2419.
    4. Amir, Rabah, 2005. "Ordinal versus cardinal complementarity: The case of Cournot oligopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Amir, Rabah & Bloch, Francis, 2009. "Comparative statics in a simple class of strategic market games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 7-24, January.
    6. Rabah Amir, 2005. "Supermodularity and Complementarity in Economics: An Elementary Survey," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(3), pages 636-660, January.
    7. Roy, Sunanda & Sabarwal, Tarun, 2010. "Monotone comparative statics for games with strategic substitutes," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 793-806, September.
    8. Rabah Amir, 2018. "Special issue: supermodularity and monotone methods in economics," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(3), pages 547-556, October.
    9. Hoernig, Steffen H., 2003. "Existence of equilibrium and comparative statics in differentiated goods Cournot oligopolies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 989-1019, September.
    10. Roy, Sunanda & Sabarwal, Tarun, 2012. "Characterizing stability properties in games with strategic substitutes," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 337-353.
    11. Shuoxun Zhang & Tarun Sabarwal & Li Gan, 2015. "Strategic Or Nonstrategic: The Role Of Financial Benefit In Bankruptcy," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(2), pages 1004-1018, April.
    12. Andrew J. Monaco & Tarun Sabarwal, 2016. "Games with strategic complements and substitutes," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 62(1), pages 65-91, June.
    13. Sunanda Roy & Tarun Sabarwal, 2005. "Comparative Statics with Never Increasing Correspondences," Game Theory and Information 0505001, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Oct 2005.
    14. Charlene Cosandier & Filomena Garcia & Malgorzata Knauff, 2018. "Price competition with differentiated goods and incomplete product awareness," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(3), pages 681-705, October.
    15. Rabah Amir & Giuseppe Feo, 2014. "Endogenous timing in a mixed duopoly," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(3), pages 629-658, August.
    16. repec:kan:wpaper:201412 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Vives, Xavier & Vravosinos, Orestis, 2024. "Strategic complementarity in games," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    18. Anne-Christine Barthel & Tarun Sabarwal, 2018. "Directional monotone comparative statics," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(3), pages 557-591, October.
    19. Rabah Amir & Isabelle Maret & Michael Troege, 2004. "On Taxation Pass-Through for a Monopoly Firm," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 75-76, pages 155-172.
    20. Tesoriere, Antonio, 2017. "Stackelberg equilibrium with multiple firms and setup costs," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 86-102.
    21. Rabah Amir & Igor Evstigneev & Adriana Gama, 2021. "Oligopoly with network effects: firm-specific versus single network," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(3), pages 1203-1230, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Free entry; Entry regulation; Socially optimal entry; Cournot oligopoly; Supermodularity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    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:jetheo:v:154:y:2014:i:c:p:112-125. 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/inca/622869 .

    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.