Oligopoly Pricing: Old Ideas and New Tools

The "oligopoly problem"--the question of how prices are formed when the market contains only a few competitors--is one of the more persistent problems in the history of economic thought. In this book Xavier Vives applies a modern game-theoretic approach to develop a theory of oligopoly pricing. Vives begins by relating classic contributions to the field--including those of Cournot, Bertrand, Edgeworth, Chamberlin, and Robinson--to modern game theory. In his discussion of basic game-theoretic tools and equilibrium, he pays particular attention to recent developments in the theory of supermodular games. The middle section of the book, an in-depth treatment of classic static models, provides specialized existence results, characterizations of equilibria, extensions to large markets, and an analysis of comparative statics with a view toward applied work. The final chapters examine commitment issues, entry, information transmission, and collusion using a variety of tools: two-stage games, the modeling of competition under asymmetric information and mechanism design theory, and the theory of repeated and dynamic games, including Markov perfect equilibrium and differential games.

Author: Xavier Vives
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 07/27/2001
Pages: 442
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 8.97h x 5.86w x 0.91d
ISBN13: 9780262720403
ISBN10: 026272040X
BISAC Categories:
- Business & Economics | Finance | General

About the Author
Xavier Vives is Director of the Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica, Barcelona.