WEEK 3 - Oligopoly Markets Flashcards
What do markets differ according to?
- No of firms in market
- Ease of entry/exit
- Ability to differentiate
What are the most distinguishable elements of Oligopolies?
- Limited no of firms
- Limited Mkt power - Collectively shared
- Firms cannot ignore rival behaviour
What are the 3 model of Oligopolies?
- Cournot: Firms decide quantity (compete on Quantity), and price adjust to consumer demand
ONE SHOT GAME - SIMULTANEOUS DECISION - Bertrand: Firms set price (compete on price) and sell whatever demanded at those prices (most services)
SIMULTANEOUS - Stackelberg: 1st mover advantage -> Timing matters
Sequential Decision
What are the assumptions of a Duopoly?
- Two firms and none enter the market
- The firms have identical costs
- Firms sell identical products
- Firms set quantities simultaneously
E.g. Airline Market
What is Game Theory?
Set of tools to analyse strategic decision making
What is a game?
Interaction between players where they use strategies
What is a payoff?
Player’s valuation of the outcome of the game
What is an Action?
Move player makes at a specified stage of a game
What is a strategy?
Battle Plan specifying the action that a player will make based on info available at each move and for any possible contingency
When does Strategic Interdependence occur?
When player’s optimal strat depends on action of others
What are the assumptions of Game Theory?
All players are/have:
- Interested in maximising payoff (Profit, Utility, whatever)
- Have common knowledge of rules of game
- Each payoff depends on all actions taken by all players (duopoly interaction)
- Complete info (Pay off function, common knowledge betwen players) dif from perfect knowledge (player knows full history of game)
What is a static game?
- Each player acts simultaneously, only once
- Complete info about pay off function
- Imperfect info about rival moves
EXAMPLE OF A GAME AS WELL AS FINDING DOMINANT STRAT AND NASH EQUILIBRIUM
SEE IN NOTES
What is a Dominant Strategy?
An option regardless of rival choice
What is a best response?
A strategy that maxes player’s payoff given beliefs of rival strategies
What is a Nash Equilibrium?
Player has no incentive to change their action
What is the Linear Cournot Model?
- Homogenous product market with N firms
- Firm i sets quantity qi
- Total output: q = q1 + q2 + … + qn
- Market price given by p(q) = a - bq
- Linear Cost functions : Ci (qi) = ci qi - q - qi
Notation: q -i