IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/tuedps/250.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The strategic effect of debt in dynamic price competition with fluctuating demand

Author

Listed:
  • Neubecker, Leslie

Abstract

This paper shows that obligations from debt hinder tacit collusion if equity owners are protected by limited liability. In contrast to its advantageous commitment value in short-run competition, leverage reduces profits from infinite interaction. Contrasting uncorrelated shocks with a cyclical demand development, we show that in the first case optimal pricing is anticyclical. With demand cycles, it is anticyclical only if equity holders place a low value on future profits, but procyclical otherwise. In both cases, the cyclicity of prices increases with the debt level. Contrary to traditional wisdom, a lower degree of homogeneity may raise profits of leveraged firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Neubecker, Leslie, 2002. "The strategic effect of debt in dynamic price competition with fluctuating demand," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 250, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:tuedps:250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/47597/1/574889035.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stenbacka, Rune, 1994. "Financial structure and tacit collusion with repeated oligopoly competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 281-292, October.
    2. Bagwell, Kyle, 1995. "Commitment and observability in games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 271-280.
    3. Vojislav Maksimovic, 1988. "Capital Structure in Repeated Oligopolies," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(3), pages 389-407, Autumn.
    4. John Haltiwanger & Joseph E. Harrington Jr., 1991. "The Impact of Cyclical Demand Movements on Collusive Behavior," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(1), pages 89-106, Spring.
    5. Kyle Bagwell & Robert Staiger, 1997. "Collusion Over the Business Cycle," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(1), pages 82-106, Spring.
    6. Chevalier, Judith A & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Capital-Market Imperfections and Countercyclical Markups: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 703-725, September.
    7. Michael L. Katz, 1991. "Game-Playing Agents: Unobservable Contracts as Precommitments," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(3), pages 307-328, Autumn.
    8. Rotemberg, Julio J & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "A Supergame-Theoretic Model of Price Wars during Booms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 390-407, June.
    9. Zwiebel, Jeffrey, 1996. "Dynamic Capital Structure under Managerial Entrenchment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1197-1215, December.
    10. Bagliano, Fabio C. & Dalmazzo, Alberto, 1999. "Liquidation risks in the Rotemberg-Saloner implicit collusion model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 69-74, January.
    11. Maksimovic, Vojislav & Titman, Sheridan, 1991. "Financial Policy and Reputation for Product Quality," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(1), pages 175-200.
    12. Wanzenried, Gabrielle, 2003. "Capital structure decisions and output market competition under demand uncertainty," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 171-200, February.
    13. Michel Poitevin, 1989. "Collusion and the Banking Structure of a Duopoly," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 22(2), pages 263-277, May.
    14. Simon J. Evenett & Margaret C. Levenstein & Valerie Y. Suslow, 2001. "International Cartel Enforcement: Lessons from the 1990s," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(9), pages 1221-1245, September.
    15. Showalter, Dean M, 1995. "Oligopoly and Financial Structure: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 647-653, June.
    16. Dasgupta, Sudipto & Titman, Sheridan, 1998. "Pricing Strategy and Financial Policy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(4), pages 705-737.
    17. Brander, James A. & Lewis, Tracy R., 1986. "Oligopoly and Financial Structure: The Limited Liability Effect," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 956-970, December.
    18. Chevalier, Judith A & Scharfstein, David S, 1995. "Liquidity Constraints and the Cyclical Behavior of Markups," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(2), pages 390-396, May.
    19. Dick Damania, 1997. "Debt as a collusive device in an oligopoly supergame," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 249-269, October.
    20. Bhattacharya Sudipto & Chiesa Gabriella, 1995. "Proprietary Information, Financial Intermediation, and Research Incentives," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 328-357, October.
    21. James A. Brander & Tracy R. Lewis, 1988. "Bankruptcy Costs and the Theory of Oligopoly," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 21(2), pages 221-243, May.
    22. Shapiro, Carl, 1989. "Theories of oligopoly behavior," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 329-414, Elsevier.
    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. Hager, Svenja & Schöbel, Rainer, 2006. "Deriving the dependence structure of portfolio credit derivatives using evolutionary algorithms," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 300, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    2. Rostek, Stefan & Schöbel, Rainer, 2006. "Risk preference based option pricing in a fractional Brownian market," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 299, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    3. Pitterle, Ingo & Steffen, Dirk, 2004. "Welfare Effects of Fiscal Policy under Alternative Exchange Rate Regimes : The Role of the Scale Variable of Money Demand," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 284, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    4. Koepke, Nikola & Baten, Joerg, 2005. "The biological standard of living in Europe during the last two millennia," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 61-95, April.
    5. Stadler, Manfred, 2003. "Innovation and growth: The role of labor-force qualification," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 255, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    6. Baten, Jörg & Wallusch, Jacek, 2003. "Market integration and disintegration of Poland and Gemany [Germany] in the 18th century," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 268, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.

    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. Ferrés, Daniel & Ormazabal, Gaizka & Povel, Paul & Sertsios, Giorgo, 2021. "Capital structure under collusion," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    2. T. Franck & N. Huyghebaert, 2004. "On the Interactions between Capital Structure and Product Markets.A Survey of the Literature," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(4), pages 727-787.
    3. Le Pape, Nicolas, 2001. "Endettement des firmes et comportements de rivalité : l’apport des principaux modèles en économie industrielle," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 77(2), pages 281-302, juin.
    4. Abdulaziz Istaitieh & José M. Rodríguez‐Fernández, 2006. "Factor‐product markets and firm's capital structure: A literature review," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 49-75.
    5. Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 1998. "Debt as a (Credible) Collusive Device, or: "Everybody Happy but the Consumer"," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 243, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 01 Aug 2004.
    6. Christos Constantatos & Stylianos Perrakis, 2010. "On the Impact of Financial Structure on Product Selection," Discussion Paper Series 2010_11, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Nov 2010.
    7. Neff, Cornelia, 1997. "Finanzstruktur und strategischer Wettbewerb auf Gütermärkten," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 89, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    8. Istaitieh, Abdulaziz & Rodriguez-Fernandez, Jose M., 2006. "Factor-product markets and firm's capital structure: A literature review," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 49-75.
    9. Franck, Bernard & Le Pape, Nicolas, 2008. "The commitment value of the debt: A reappraisal," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 607-615, March.
    10. Giacinta Cestone & Lucy White, "undated". "Anti-Competitive Financial Contracting: The Design Of Financial Claims," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 453.00, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    11. Jean LEFOLL & Stylianos PERRAKIS, 2002. "Financial Structure and Market Equilibrium in a Vertically Differentiated Industry," FAME Research Paper Series rp96, International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering.
    12. Ulrich Hege, 2010. "Acquisition Values and Optimal Financial (In)Flexibility," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(7), pages 2865-2899, July.
    13. Erol, Turan, 2005. "Corporate debt and output pricing in developing countries: Industry-level evidence from Turkey," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 503-520, April.
    14. Stylianos Perrakis & Christos Constantatos & Jean Lefoll, 2008. "Financial Structure and Product Qualities," Discussion Paper Series 2008_15, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Dec 2008.
    15. Povel, Paul & Raith, Michael, 2004. "Financial constraints and product market competition: ex ante vs. ex post incentives," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 917-949, September.
    16. Chao Ma, 2019. "Does capital structure differently affect incumbents' responses to entry threat and actual entry?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 585-613, November.
    17. Giacinta Cestone, 1999. "Corporate Financing and Product Market Competition: An Overview," CSEF Working Papers 18, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    18. Arping, Stefan, 2005. "Protective interests and creative destruction," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 401-431, October.
    19. Haan, Marco A. & Toolsema, Linda A., 2008. "The strategic use of debt reconsidered," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 616-624, March.
    20. Ciliberto, Federico & Schenone, Carola, 2012. "Bankruptcy and product-market competition: Evidence from the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 564-577.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capital structure; dynamic competition; collusion; Preiswettbewerb; Kapitalstruktur; Kollusion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games

    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:zbw:tuedps:250. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wftuede.html .

    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.