Price Caps as Welfare-Enhancing Coopetition.

The paper analyzes the impact of price caps agreed upon by industry participants. Price caps, like mergers, allow firms to solve Cournot's multiple-marginalization problem, but unlike mergers, they do not stifle price competition in case of substitutes or facilitate foreclosure in case of complement...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Political Economy Vol. 127; no. 6; pp. 000 - 1
Autores principales: Rey, Patrick, Tirole, Jean
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Chicago Press Dec2019
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The paper analyzes the impact of price caps agreed upon by industry participants. Price caps, like mergers, allow firms to solve Cournot's multiple-marginalization problem, but unlike mergers, they do not stifle price competition in case of substitutes or facilitate foreclosure in case of complements. The paper first demonstrates this for nonrepeated interaction and general demand and cost functions. It then shows that allowing price caps has no impact on investment and entry in case of substitutes. Under more restrictive assumptions, the paper finally generalizes the insights to repeated price interaction, analyzing coordinated effects when goods are not necessarily substitutes.