Search results for "monopoly"
showing 10 items of 40 documents
Reproductive monopoly enforced by sterile police workers in a queenless ant
2004
In societies of totipotent insects, dyadic dominance interactions generate a hierarchy that often underlies an extreme reproductive skew. Subordinates remain infertile but can maximize their indirect fitness benefits through collective power (worker policing): interference with challenging high-rankers can prevent an untimely replacement of the reproductive. However, police workers only benefit if they favor individuals with high fertility. In the monogynous queenless ant Streblognathus peetersi, we used behavioral, physiological, and chemical methods to show that police workers have the primary role in the selection of the reproductive, and that they probably use reliable information about…
An Additive Model to Predict the Rheological and Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene Blends Made by Virgin and Reprocessed Components
2021
In this work, an additive model for the prediction of the rheological and mechanical properties of monopolymer blends made by virgin and reprocessed components is proposed. A polypropylene sample has been reprocessed more times in an extruder and monopolymer blends have been prepared by simulating an industrial process. The scraps are exposed to regrinding and are melt reprocessed before mixing with the virgin polymer. The reprocessed polymer is, then, subjected to some thermomechanical degradation. Rheological and mechanical experimental data have been compared with the theoretical predictions. The results obtained showed that the values of this simple additive model are a very good fit fo…
La tutela della concorrenza nella Repubblica Popolare Cinese
2014
La tesi dal titolo “La tutela della concorrenza nella Repubblica Popolare Cinese” si propone di affrontare l’intricato problema dell’armonizzazione dei principi della concorrenza in un sistema economico in via di transizione quale quello cinese. L’attenzione sulla questione è stata stimolata dall’emanazione della legge antimonopoli, entrata in vigore nell’agosto del 2008, che ha conosciuto le sue prime applicazioni concrete nel corso di questi primi cinque anni . Cercando di non lasciarsi sviare dalla tentazione di giudicare la normativa antitrust paese asiatico sul presupposto di una presunta superiorità degli ordinamenti dei paesi occidentali, che in materia posseggono una tradizioni di o…
On Capturing Rent from a Non-Renewable Resource International Monopoly: A Dynamic Game Approach
2005
In this paper we model the case of an international non-renewable resource monopolist as a dynamic game between a monopolist and n importing countries governments, and we investigate whether a tariff on resource imports can be advantageous for the consumers of the importing countries when the monopolist sets the price and the importing countries governments act in a non-cooperative way. We find that a tariff is advantageous for the consumers even when there is not commitment to the trade policy although the part of the rent that can be reaped by the importing countries decreases substantially with the number of importing countries. The optimality of the tariff in our dynamic game is explain…
Upward and Downward Limit Pricing: The Role of Post-Entry Competition
2005
Under asymmetric information, entry-deterring strategies by an incumbent monopolist can consist of deviations from its static monopoly price through downward deviations termed downward limit pricing, or upward deviations termed upward limit pricing. Our analysis shows that the mode of post-entry competition influences the range of situations in which an incumbent adopts a strategy of downward limit pricing instead of an upward one: this range is greater under price than under output competition; it is decreasing in the degree of product differentiation; and with homogeneous product only downward limit pricing emerges under price competition, while upward limit pricing can still take place w…
Adam Smith on Monopoly Theory. Making good a lacuna
2014
This article analyses Adam Smith's views on monopoly by focusing on Book IV and V of The Wealth of Nations. It argues that the majority of scholars have assessed Smith's analysis of monopoly starting from premises different from those, actually though implicitly, used by Smith. We show that Smith makes use of the word 'monopoly' to refer to a heterogeneous collection of market outcomes, besides that of a single seller market, and that Smith's account of monopolists' behaviour is richer than that provided by later theorists. We also show that Smith was aware of the growth-retarding effect of monopoly and urged State regulation. © 2014 Scottish Economic Society.
Second-best taxation for a polluting monopoly with abatement investment
2018
This paper characterizes the optimal tax rule to regulate a polluting monopoly when the firm has the possibility of investing in an abatement technology and the environmental damages are caused by a stock pollutant. The optimal policy is given by the stagewise feedback Stackelberg equilibrium of a dynamic policy game between a regulator and a monopolist. The regulator playing as the leader chooses an emission tax to maximize net social welfare, and the monopolist acting as the follower selects the output and the investment in abatement technology to maximize profits. We find that the optimal tax has two components. The first component is negative and equal to the gap between the marginal re…
The Strategic Use of Innovation to Influence Environmental Policy: Taxes versus Standards
2015
Abstract This paper evaluates the strategic behavior of a polluting monopolist to influence environmental policy, either with taxes or with standards, comparing two alternative policy games. The first of the games assumes that the regulator commits to an ex-ante level of the policy instrument. The second one is the time-consistent policy game. We find that the strategic behavior of the firm is welfare improving and leads to more environmental innovation than under regulatory commitment if a tax is used to control pollution. However, the contrary occurs if an emission standard is used. Under commitment, it is shown that both policy instruments are equivalent. We conclude that the optimal env…
Entry and espionage with noisy signals
2014
Abstract We analyze the effect of industrial espionage on entry deterrence. We consider a monopoly incumbent who may expand capacity to deter entry, and a potential entrant who owns an Intelligence System. The Intelligence System (IS) generates a noisy signal based on the incumbentʼs actions. The potential entrant uses this signal to decide whether or not to enter the market. The incumbent may signal-jam to manipulate the likelihood of the noisy signals and hence affect the entrantʼs decisions. If the precision of the IS is commonly known, the incumbent benefits from his rivalʼs espionage. Actually, he benefits more the higher is the precision of the IS while the spying entrant is worse off…
Bilateral Monopoly: A Contribution by Francesco Ferrara
2009
In this paper, we propose an interpretation of the application of "cost of reproduction" of Francesco Ferrara to the exchange between two agents to highlight its relevance for the theory of bilateral monopoly. In the Teoria delle Mercedi (1863), Ferrara gives a numerical example to explain price determination in the exchange between one buyer and one seller. Here, this example is translated into a mathematical model that reproduces the fundamental issues of the neoclassical debate on the indeterminacy of price in the Cournot model (1938), and anticipates the solutions proposed by Edgeworth (1881) at the end of this debate.