Capacity precommitment and price competition yield cournot outcomes

We study an industry of a homogeneous good where n firms with identical technology compete by first building capacity, and then, after observing the capacity decisions, choosing a "reservation price" at which they are willing to sell their entire capacities. We show that every pure strategy equilibrium yields the Cournot outcome, and that the Cournot outcome can be sustained by a pure strategy subgame perfect equilibrium

Capacity precommitment and price competition yield the Cournot outcome

We introduce a simple model of oligopolistic competition where firms first build capacity, and then, after observing the capacity decisions, choose a reservation price at which they are willing to supply their capacities. This model describes many markets more realistically than the model of Kreps and Scheinkman [Kreps, D., Scheinkman, J., 1983. Quantity precommitment and Bertrand competition yield Cournot outcomes. Bell J. Econ. 14, 326–337]. We show that in this new model every pure strategy equilibrium yields the Cournot outcome, and that the Cournot outcome can be sustained by a pure strategy subgame perfect equilibrium.Publicad

Comparative study of surface plasmon scattering by shallow ridges and grooves

We revisit the scattering of surface plasmons by shallow surface defects for both protrusions and indentations of various lengths, which are deemed infinite in one-dimension parallel to the surface. Subwavelength protrusions and indentations of equal shape present different scattering coefficients when their height and width are comparable. In this case, a protrusion scatters plasmons like a vertical point-dipole on a plane, while an indentation scatters like a horizontal point-dipole on a plane. We corroborate that long and shallow asymmetrically-shaped surface defects have very similar scattering, as already found with approximate methods. In the transition from short shallow scatterers to long shallow scatterers the radiation can be understood in terms of interference between a vertical and a horizontal dipole. The results attained numerically are exact and accounted for with analytical models

Capacity precommitment and price competition yield Cournot outcomes

We study an industry of a homogeneous good where n firms with identical technology compete by first building capacity, and then, after observing the capacity decisions, choosing a “reservation price” at which they are willing to sell their entire capacities. We show that every pure strategy equilibrium yields the Cournot outcome, and that the Cournot outcome can be sustained by a pure strategy subgame perfect equilibrium.

Paisajes de la memoria: el Romancero en ruinas

El romance es una tradición de la cultura española que se conoce desde finales de la Edad Media y que ha permanecido activa hasta nuestros días. Cuando tras el Siglo de Oro el Romancero perdió el favor de los círculos cultivados, encontró refugio en la memoria colectiva de las gentes sencillas que, a la vez que continuaron cantando el romancero tradicional, fueron incorporando nuevos romances más modernos, a veces más vulgares. En nuestros días esa vasta memoria se está perdiendo y está pronta su desaparición. El presente artículo es una reflexión sobre tal pérdida; una pérdida que dejará a la cultura española mutilada de una de sus manifestaciones más singulares. El enfoque adoptado parte del pensamiento del antropólogo francés Marc Augé acerca de la memoria y el olvido. Cuando en la descripción del proceso de olvido aparezca la metáfora de las ruinas, invocaremos la voz de María Zambrano cuyas profundas y fértiles reflexiones nos orientarán hacia una mejor comprensión del fenómeno descrito.The romance is a Spanish cultural tradition known since the end of the Middle Ages and that has remained active until today. After the Spanish Golden Age, when the romancero lost the cultural circles’ favour, it found its place in the collective memory of simple people who kept singing the traditional romancero and gradually incorporated new romances, more modern and sometimes more vulgar. Nowadays, this extensive memory is being lost and is close to disappear. The current article is a reflection on that loss, a loss that will leave the Spanish culture mutilated from one of its most genuine manifestations. The adopted approach is based on the thinking of the French anthropologist Marc Augé about the memory and the oblivion. When in the description of the forgetting process the metaphor of ruins appears, we will make an appeal to the voice of María Zambrano, whose deep and productive thoughts will guide us towards a better understanding of the described phenomenon

Interpreting markups in Spanish manufacturing: the exponential model

In this paper we attempt to rationalize markups in a sample of Spanish manufacturing by assuming a representative consumer, profit-maximizing firms and constant returns to scale. We find that the standard forms of demand (CES and linear) do not provide a good explanation of markups. In contrast, a model where the representative consumer has an exponential utilty function yields results that match data more closely.

Faraday effect in rippled graphene: Magneto-optics and random gauge fields

A beam of linearly polarized light transmitted through magnetically biased graphene can have its axis of polarization rotated by several degrees after passing the graphene sheet. This large Faraday effect is due to the action of the magnetic field on graphene's charge carriers. As deformations of the graphene membrane result in pseudomagnetic fields acting on the charge carriers, the effect of random mesoscopic corrugations (ripples) can be described as the exposure of graphene to a random pseudomagnetic field. We aim to clarify the interplay of these typically sample inherent fields with the external magnetic bias field and the resulting effect on the Faraday rotation. In principle, random gauge disorder can be identified from a combination of Faraday angle and optical spectroscopy measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Interpreting markups in Spanish manufacturing: The exponential model

In this paper we attempt to rationalize markups in a sample of Spanish manufacturing by assuming a representative consumer, profit-maximizing firms and constant returns to scale. We find that the standard forms of demand (CES and linear) do not provide a good explanation of markups. In contrast, a model where the representative consumer has an exponential utilty function yields results that match data more closely.Markups, Exponential utility function