IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/mateco/v46y2010i5p855-866.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Robust results on the sharing of firm-specific information: Incentives and welfare effects

Author

Listed:
  • Amir, Rabah
  • Jin, Jim Y.
  • Troege, Michael

Abstract

Contrary to much of the existing literature, we obtain robust and clear-cut results for the incentives and welfare effects of information sharing when information is firm-specific. We show that firms' incentives to share this type of information are aligned with social welfare. Whenever revealing information is the dominant strategy (such as for Cournot firms revealing costs or Cournot and Bertrand firms revealing demand), it is socially beneficial. Only cost information in Bertrand competition will not be revealed but this is socially desirable, too. These findings are independent of distributional assumptions on random shocks and signals and hold for general asymmetric oligopoly with any mixture of substitute, complementary and independent goods.

Suggested Citation

  • Amir, Rabah & Jin, Jim Y. & Troege, Michael, 2010. "Robust results on the sharing of firm-specific information: Incentives and welfare effects," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 855-866, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:mateco:v:46:y:2010:i:5:p:855-866
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304-4068(10)00073-X
    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. Lagerlof, Johan N.M., 2007. "Insisting on a non-negative price: Oligopoly, uncertainty, welfare, and multiple equilibria," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 861-875, August.
    2. Richard N. Clarke, 1983. "Collusion and the Incentives for Information Sharing," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 383-394, Autumn.
    3. Gal-Or, Esther, 1985. "Information Sharing in Oligopoly," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 329-343, March.
    4. Banal-Estanol, Albert, 2007. "Information-sharing implications of horizontal mergers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 31-49, February.
    5. Sakai, Yasuhiro, 1985. "The value of information in a simple duopoly model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 36-54, June.
    6. Creane, Anthony, 2007. "Productivity information in vertical sharing agreements," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 821-841, August.
    7. Armantier, Olivier & Richard, Oliver, 2003. "Entry and Exchanges of Cost Information," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 223-241, September.
    8. Armantier, Olivier & Richard, Oliver, 2003. "Exchanges of Cost Information in the Airline Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(3), pages 461-477, Autumn.
    9. Creane, Anthony & Miyagiwa, Kaz, 2008. "Information and disclosure in strategic trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 229-244, May.
    10. Malueg, David A. & Tsutsui, Shunichi O., 1998. "Distributional assumptions in the theory of oligopoly information exchange1," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 785-797, November.
    11. Vives, Xavier, 1984. "Duopoly information equilibrium: Cournot and bertrand," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 71-94, October.
    12. Lode Li, 1985. "Cournot Oligopoly with Information Sharing," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(4), pages 521-536, Winter.
    13. repec:bla:ausecp:v:37:y:1998:i:4:p:363-71 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Jens Tapking, 2004. "Cost information sharing with uncertainty averse firms," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 23(4), pages 879-907, May.
    15. David Malueg & Shunichi Tsutsui, 1996. "Coalition-proof information exchanges," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 259-278, October.
    16. Raith, Michael, 1996. "A General Model of Information Sharing in Oligopoly," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 260-288, October.
    17. William Novshek & Hugo Sonnenschein, 1982. "Fulfilled Expectations Cournot Duopoly with Information Acquisition and Release," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(1), pages 214-218, Spring.
    18. Xavier Vives, 1990. "Trade Association Disclosure Rules, Incentives to Share Information, and Welfare," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(3), pages 409-430, Autumn.
    19. Suil Pae, 2002. "Optimal Disclosure Policy in Oligopoly Markets," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 901-932, June.
    20. Carl Shapiro, 1986. "Exchange of Cost Information in Oligopoly," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(3), pages 433-446.
    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. Goltsman, Maria & Pavlov, Gregory, 2014. "Communication in Cournot oligopoly," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 152-176.
    2. Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia & Muehlegger, Erich J., 2013. "On the use of heuristics to approximate competitors’ private information," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 10-23.
    3. Duarte Brito & Pedro Pereira & João Vareda, 2016. "Can More Information About Rivals' Costs Decrease Welfare?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(2), pages 251-269, March.

    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. António Brandão & Joana Pinho, 2015. "Asymmetric Information And Exchange Of Information About Product Differentiation," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 166-185, April.
    2. Medín, J. Andrés Faíña & Rodríguez, Jesús López & Rodríguez, José López, 2003. "Information Exchanges in Cournot Duopolies," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 57(1), January.
    3. Lagerlof, Johan N.M., 2007. "Insisting on a non-negative price: Oligopoly, uncertainty, welfare, and multiple equilibria," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 861-875, August.
    4. Duarte Brito & Pedro Pereira & João Vareda, 2016. "Can More Information About Rivals' Costs Decrease Welfare?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(2), pages 251-269, March.
    5. Yin, Xundong & Wang, Sophie Xuefei & Lu, Yuanzhu & Yan, Jianye, 2023. "Endogenous information acquisition and disclosure of private information in a duopoly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Sjaak Hurkens, 2014. "Bayesian Nash equilibrium in “linear” Cournot models with private information about costs," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 10(2), pages 203-217, June.
    7. Qiu, Larry D. & Zhou, Wen, 2006. "International mergers: Incentives and welfare," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 38-58, January.
    8. Mariana Cunha & Paula Sarmento & Hélder Vasconcelos, 2014. "Uncertain Efficiency Gains and Merger Policy," FEP Working Papers 527, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    9. Myatt, David P. & Wallace, Chris, 2015. "Cournot competition and the social value of information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 158(PB), pages 466-506.
    10. Jin, Jim Y., 1996. "A test for information sharing in Cournot oligopoly," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 75-86, March.
    11. Roy, Jaideep & Silvers, Randy & Sun, Ching-Jen, 2019. "Majoritarian preference, utilitarian welfare and public information in Cournot oligopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 269-288.
    12. Wei-Shiun Chang & Daniel A. Sanchez-Loor, 2020. "Downstream Information Leaking and Information Sharing Between Partially Informed Retailers," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 733-760, December.
    13. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Richard McLean, 2014. "On the existence of Nash equilibrium in Bayesian games," Departmental Working Papers 201402, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    14. Malueg, David A. & Tsutsui, Shunichi O., 1998. "Distributional assumptions in the theory of oligopoly information exchange1," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 785-797, November.
    15. Chang, Chun-Hao & Prakash, Arun J. & Yeh, Shu, 2004. "Sale of monopoly information and behavior of rivaling clients: A theoretical perspective," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 283-304.
    16. Le Pape, Nicolas & Zhao, Kai, 2014. "Horizontal mergers and uncertainty," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-31.
    17. Lode Li & Hongtao Zhang, 2008. "Confidentiality and Information Sharing in Supply Chain Coordination," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(8), pages 1467-1481, August.
    18. Lode Li, 2002. "Information Sharing in a Supply Chain with Horizontal Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(9), pages 1196-1212, September.
    19. Wu, Jianghua & Zhai, Xin & Huang, Zhimin, 2008. "Incentives for information sharing in duopoly with capacity constraints," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 963-975, December.
    20. Pedro M. Gardete, 2016. "Competing Under Asymmetric Information: The Case of Dynamic Random Access Memory Manufacturing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(11), pages 3291-3309, November.

    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:mateco:v:46:y:2010:i:5:p:855-866. 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/jmateco .

    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.