discrete time dynamic oligopolies with adjustment constraints

A classical $n$-firm oligopoly is considered first with linear demand and cost functions which has a unique equilibrium. We then assume that the output levels of the firms are bounded in a sense that they are unwilling to make small changes, the output levels are bounded from above, and if the optimal output level is very small then the firms quit producing, which are realistic assumptions in real economies. In the first part of the paper, the best responses of the firms are determined and the existence of infinitely many equilibria is verified. The second part of the paper examines the global dynamics of the duopoly version of the game. In particular we study the stability of the system, the bifurcations which can occur and the basins of attraction of the existing attracting sets, as a function of the speed of adjustment parameter

Essays on Public and Environmental Economics

Over the last 10 years, the solar photovoltaic (PV) market has experienced tremendous growth due in part to government incentive programs. However the effect and welfare analysis of these policy instruments remain ambiguous. In the first chapter of my dissertation, we estimate a dynamic model of households investment decisions on rooftop PV systems to understand the impact of these programs on residential solar installations and evaluate the outcome of alternative incentive policies. The model separately evaluates the effect of system prices, up-front subsidies, tax credits and production revenues using a 5-year data set collected by the California Solar Initiative program, which subsidized solar installations in California. The results indicate that capacity-based subsidies are equally effective as production-based subsidies, but that the latter are more efficient. With a $100 social cost of carbon, the total subsidies in California would be welfare neutral. If California were only as sunny as Frankfurt, Germany, this value has to be$200 to be welfare neutral. We find that without subsidies, 85% of the existing installations would not have occurred. The second chapter of my dissertation is on the political economics of corruption. This is a relevant question in the Environmental Economics due to the human factors involved in government regulations. We investigate the effects of unhindered corruption in the entry-certifying process of an industry on market structure and social welfare. To gain entry, a firm must pay a bribe-maximizing official an exogenous percentage of anticipated profit, in addition to the usual set up cost. This would lead to a monopoly, but only in markets without pre-existing firms. A benevolent social planner may use bribery to the benefit of society by either manipulating the number of pre-existing firms in the market, or by setting up independent (corrupt) licensing authorities. A socially optimal number of firms in the market may be reached by choosing the right number of pre-existing firms or by having exactly two licensing authorities. These mechanisms may be seen as restoring second-best efficiency in settings characterized by two major sources of distortion: Imperfect competition and corruption

On the Prisoner’s Dilemma in R&D with Input Spillovers and Incentives for R&D Cooperation

This paper considers a standard model of strategic R&D with spillovers in R&D inputs, and extends the result that duopoly firms engaged in a standard two-stage game of R&D and Cournot competition end up in a prisoner’s dilemma situation for their R&D decisions, whenever spillover effects and R&D costs are relatively low. In terms of social welfare, this prisoner’s dilemma always works to the advantage of both consumers and society. This result allows a novel and enlightening perspective on some issues of substantial interest in the innovation literature. In particular, the incentive firms face towards R&D cooperation in the form of an R&D cartel is shown to be maximal for the case of zero spillovers, which is when the prisoner’s dilemma has the largest scope

Radiocarbon Results from a 13-kyr BP Coral from the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea

IntCal04: Calibration Issue, 2004.This paper presents radiocarbon results from a single Goniastrea favulus coral from Papua New Guinea which lived continuously between 13.0 and 13.1 kyr BP. The specimen was collected from a drill core on the Huon Peninsula and has been independently dated with 230Th. A site-specific reservoir correction has been applied to the results, and coral growth bands were used to calibrate individual growth years. Alternating density bands, which are the result of seasonal growth variations, were subsampled to provide 2 integrated 6-month 14C measurements per year. This allows for 20 independent measurements to be averaged for each decadal value of the 14C calibration, making these results the highest resolution data set available for this brief time range. The fine structure of the data set exhibits 14C oscillations with frequencies on the order of 4 to 10 yr, similar to those observed in modern coral 14C records.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

Radiocarbon Results from a 13-Kyr BP Coral from the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea

IntCal04: Calibration Issue, 2004.This paper presents radiocarbon results from a single Goniastrea favulus coral from Papua New Guinea which lived continuously between 13.0 and 13.1 kyr BP. The specimen was collected from a drill core on the Huon Peninsula and has been independently dated with 230Th. A site-specific reservoir correction has been applied to the results, and coral growth bands were used to calibrate individual growth years. Alternating density bands, which are the result of seasonal growth variations, were subsampled to provide 2 integrated 6-month 14C measurements per year. This allows for 20 independent measurements to be averaged for each decadal value of the 14C calibration, making these results the highest resolution data set available for this brief time range. The fine structure of the data set exhibits 14C oscillations with frequencies on the order of 4 to 10 yr, similar to those observed in modern coral 14C records.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202