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The Limits of Limited Commitment

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Listed:
  • Jacopo Bizzotto
  • Toomas Hinnosaar
  • Adrien Vigier

Abstract

We study limited strategic leadership. A collection of subsets covering the leader's action space determines her commitment opportunities. We characterize the outcomes resulting from all possible commitment structures of this kind. If the commitment structure is an interval partition, then the leader's payoff is bounded by her Stackelberg and Cournot payoffs. However, under more general commitment structures the leader may obtain a payoff that is less than her minimum Cournot payoff. We apply our results to study information design problems in leader-follower games where a mediator communicates information about the leader's action to the follower.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacopo Bizzotto & Toomas Hinnosaar & Adrien Vigier, 2022. "The Limits of Limited Commitment," Papers 2205.05546, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2205.05546
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    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
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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