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Price competition or price leadership

Author

Listed:
  • Makoto Yano

    (1-3-1 Kasumigaseki
    Yoshida-Honmachi)

  • Takashi Komatsubara

    (Japan Fair Trade Commission)

Abstract

Every now and then, we observe a fierce price war in a real world market, through which competing firms, selling a homogenous product, end up with Bertrand-like price competition. Despite this, not much has been known in the existing literature as to why a price competition market is formed. We address this question in the context of a choice between engaging in price competition and holding a price leader. Focusing on a duopoly market, we demonstrate that if the market is tight (or if the relative size of demand to supply exceeds a threshold value) and if the cost differential between firms is reasonably large, duopoly firms choose to engage in price competition. Otherwise, one firm becomes a price leader while the other firm a price follower.

Suggested Citation

  • Makoto Yano & Takashi Komatsubara, 2018. "Price competition or price leadership," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(4), pages 1023-1057, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:66:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s00199-017-1080-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s00199-017-1080-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. R. R. Routledge & R. A. Edwards, 2020. "Ambiguity and price competition," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 231-256, March.
    2. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2020. "A general model of price competition with soft capacity constraints," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 70(1), pages 95-120, July.
    3. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2021. "Chamberlin without differentiation: Soft-capacity constrained price competition with free entry," Working Papers halshs-03378500, HAL.
    4. Sverre Grepperud & Pål Andreas Pedersen, 2022. "First and second mover advantages and the degree of conflicting interests," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 1861-1873, September.
    5. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2022. "Chamberlin without differentiation: Soft-capacity constrained price competition with free entry," Post-Print halshs-03378500, HAL.
    6. Torsten J. Gerpott & Jan Berends, 2022. "Competitive pricing on online markets: a literature review," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(6), pages 596-622, December.
    7. Marie‐Laure Cabon‐Dhersin & Nicolas Drouhin, 2023. "Chamberlin without differentiation: Soft capacity constrained price competition with free entry," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(1), pages 118-126, March.
    8. Rui Ota & Hiroshi Fujiu, 2021. "Price Competition and Setup Cost," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-15, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Price competition; Price leader; Market organization game; Duopoly;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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