Environmental Taxation and International Eco-Industries

Environmental policies are discussed when two countries differ in their ability to abate pollution. Northern eco-industries (the industry supplying abatement activities) are more efficient than Southern ones. Segmented environmental markets and a Northern monopoly yield identical second-best taxes in both countries. When markets are global, Southern countries underestimate the market power of eco-industries. Introducing competition creates positive (resp. negative) rent-shifting distortions in South (resp. North). Cooperation could reduce Northern pollution but has ambiguous consequences in South.Eco-Industry, Strategic Environmental Policy, Asymmetric Oligopolies

Cooperation without Coordination: Signaling, Types and Tacit Collusion in Laboratory Oligopolies

We study the effects of price signaling activity and underlying propensities to cooperate on tacit collusion in posted offer markets. The primary experiment consists of an extensively repeated baseline sequence and a 'forecast' sequence that adds to the baseline a forecasting game that allows identification of signaling intentions. Forecast sequence results indicate that signaling intentions considerably exceed those that are counted under a standard signal measure based on previous period prices. Nevertheless, we find essentially no correlation between either measure of signal volumes and collusive efficiency. A second experiment demonstrates that underlying seller propensities to cooperate more clearly affect collusiveness.Experiments, Tacit Collusion, Price Signaling, TypesExperiments, Tacit Collusion, Price Signaling, Types

Oligopolies of Violence in Post-Conflict Societies

In post-conflict societies, security is provided by a broad range of actors including the state as well as various non-state formations. The paper identifies three types of post-conflict societies and analyses dynamics of the security market in cases where international troops have intervened. A comparison of seven countries shows that intervention forces were able to establish themselves as market leaders when a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) program was successfully conducted in the immediate post-conflict period. Such a program should be embedded in an inclusive peace agreement that is backed up by a credible and robust troop commitment from the international community.Post-conflict societies, security market, oligopoly of violence, international intervention, disarmament

Bilateral oligopoly : countervailing market power

Malta’s economy, minute by any standard, makes for imperfectly competitive market structures. The degree of this competition is quite interesting since many firms, in the wholesale, retail, as well as in other sectors, tend to form part of oligopolistic structures, such as banking, mobile phone service provision, internet service providers, bottled-water manufacturers, insurance, food importers, supermarkets, and new and used car importers. Oligopsony, or the concentration of market power in the hands of a few buyers, may be considered as the other side of the coin. Many studies of oligopsony have focused on retailers who manage to extract prices and conditions from providers or manufacturers that are beneficial to them, but not necessarily to consumers. This paper discusses the degree of oligopoly power and how the firm tends to wield this power. It also discusses the conceptual basis of bilateral oligopoly (oligopoly and oligopsony) and some of its economic and welfare effects.peer-reviewe

Stabilität und Wandel von Arbeitsmarktinstitutionen aus wettbewerbsökonomischer Sicht

Dieser Beitrag fasst die Ergebnisse unserer industrieökonomischen, theoretischen Forschung zur Fragestellung von Stabilität und Wandel von Arbeitsmarktinstitutionen zusammen. Wir verfolgen dabei einen wettbewerbsökonomischen Forschungsansatz, der Marktmacht sowohl auf Arbeits- als auch auf Absatzmärkten unterstellt. In der Literatur hat sich hierfür der Begriff unionised oligopolies eingebürgert. Damit wird zum Ausdruck gebracht, dass die untersuchte Klasse von Modellen einerseits Verhandlungsmacht auf Arbeitsmärkten und andererseits unvollständigen Wettbewerb und somit Marktmacht auf Absatzmärkten berücksichtigt. Kern ist die Analyse der Wechselwirkungen zwischen Organisationsformen auf Arbeitsmärkten und Wettbewerbsverhältnissen auf Produktmärkten. Dabei analysieren wir aktuelle Entwicklungen auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt wie die Einführung sektorspezifischer Mindestlöhne, die Rolle von Spartengewerkschaften, Formen der Gewinnbeteiligung von Arbeitnehmern sowie internationale Wettbewerbsaspekte wie die Verlagerung der Produktion durch internationale Unternehmen ins Ausland. -- This contribution gives an overview of the main results of our theoretical research on the stability and change of labour market institutions. We use so-called models of unionised oligopolies which are borrowed from the theory of industrial organization in order to analyse the effects of simultaneous market power in both labour and product markets. The focus of our research is on the interaction between various organisational structures of labour markets and different forms of product market competition. In particular, we analyse some current developments in Germany, such as the introduction of sector-specific minimum wages, the formation of craft unions, the increasing number of profit sharing contracts as well as the relocation of production facilities to foreign countries in the context of globalisation.

Evolution of competitive equilibrium with endogenous product differentiation

Previous theoretical researches show that learning from good performers yields intense competition and results in the low profitability of firms. These researchers do not take into account differentiation strategies being referred as a useful strategic tool to mitigate competition. We introduce an evolutionary (learning) game into a duopoly model with product differentiation on the Hotelling line. We find that central agglomeration appears in the unique stochastically stable state in which the equilibrium price is equal to the marginal cost of firms. This implies that perfectly competitive equilibrium appears even when firms have an opportunity to differentiate themselves through product differentiation and to mitigate competition.

The strategic motive to sell forward: experimental evidence

We test the strategic motive to sell forward in experimental Cournot duopoly and quadropoly environments with either a finite (exogenous close) or an infinite (endogenous close) number of forward markets. In the exogenous close case experienced subjects do not avail themselves of the forward markets and production mostly occurs in the spot market phase. In a forward market duopoly experienced subjects achieve nearly the monopoly output level. For the quadropoly output levels are more competitive and are near the Cournot Nash equilibrium. In both cases output produced is much less than the Allaz-Vila (1993) prediction. The results with inexperienced subjects, however, are in line with theory and as reported in Le-Coq and Orzen (2006). We implement the case of infinitely many forward periods using the endogenous close rule. In this case the results both for a forward market duopoly and quadropoly are much more competitive both with inexperienced and experienced subjects. Unlike the exogenous stopping rule, under the endogenous rule subjects sell forward in the forward markets and find it hard to coordinate their actions

Angola's Incomplete Transition

sub-Saharan Africa, Angola, conflict, economic reform