Microeconomics (2nd Edition) (Pearson Series in Economics)
2nd Edition
ISBN: 9780134492049
Author: Daron Acemoglu, David Laibson, John List
Publisher: PEARSON
expand_more
expand_more
format_list_bulleted
Question
Chapter 14, Problem 1P
(a)
To determine
The game tree
To determine
The optimal solution of game through backward induction
Expert Solution & Answer
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solution
Students have asked these similar questions
Consider the following entry-deterrence game. A potential entrant has two strategies, “Enter” or “Stay Out”. An incumbent firm can either Price Low or Price High, depending on whether they want to try to fight or accommodate the entrant. (The Price Low option could be a limit price, for example). Suppose if the entrant Enters and the incumbent Prices Low, both firms lose $-1M. If the entrant enters and the incumbent Prices High, each firm earns $2M. If the Entrant doesn’t enter, the incumbent earns $4M and the entrant earns $0.
a)Using the concept of Nash Equilibrium, what are the predicted strategies and profits? Set up a game box or tree and explain your reasoning.
b) Give an example of a different profit outcome that would lead to a different Nash Equilibrium. (From this, you can see that sometimes deterrence is effective and sometimes it isn’t, depending on the profits).
Refer to the normal-form game of price competition in the payoff matrix below
Firm B
Low Price
High Price
Firm A
Low Price
0, 0
50, −10
High Price
−10, 50
20, 20
Suppose the game is infinitely repeated, and the interest rate is 20 percent. Both firms agree to charge a high price, provided no player has charged a low price in the past. This collusive outcome will be implemented with a trigger strategy that states that if any firm cheats, then the agreement is no longer valid, and each firm may make independent decisions. Will the trigger strategy be effective in implementing the collusive agreement? Please explain and show all necessary calculations.
Alcoa and Kaiser, duopolists in the market for primary aluminum ingot, choose prices of their 500 foot rolls of sheet aluminum on the first day of the month. The following payoff table shows their monthly payoffs resulting from the pricing decisions they can make.
Suppose Alcoa and Kaiser repeat their pricing decision on the first day of every month. Suppose they have been cooperating for the past few months, but now the manager at Kaiser is trying to decide whether to cheat or to continue cooperating. Kaiser’s manager believes Kaiser can get away with cheating for two months, but he also believes that Kaiser would be punished for the next two months after cheating. After punishment, Kaiser’s manager expects the two firms would return to cooperation. Kaiser’s manager ignores the time-value of money and does not discount future benefits or costs.
Will Kaiser cooperate or cheat? Explain.
Chapter 14 Solutions
Microeconomics (2nd Edition) (Pearson Series in Economics)
Knowledge Booster
Similar questions
- Alcoa and Kaiser, duopolists in the market for primary aluminum ingot, choose prices of their 500 foot rolls of sheet aluminum on the first day of the month. The following payoff table shows their monthly payoffs resulting from the pricing decisions they can make. Suppose Alcoa and Kaiser repeat their pricing decision on the first day of every month. Suppose they have been cooperating for the past few months, but now the manager at Kaiser is trying to decide whether to cheat or to continue cooperating. Kaiser’s manager believes Kaiser can get away with cheating for two months, but he also believes that Kaiser would be punished for the next two months after cheating. After punishment, Kaiser’s manager expects the two firms would return to cooperation. Kaiser’s manager ignores the time-value of money and does not discount future benefits or costs. 4. Suppose you were asked to manage a golf course that was currently charging a uniform price. Would you suggest that the course continue…arrow_forwardAlcoa and Kaiser, duopolists in the market for primary aluminum ingot, choose prices of their 500 foot rolls of sheet aluminum on the first day of the month. The following payoff table shows their monthly payoffs resulting from the pricing decisions they can make. Suppose Alcoa and Kaiser repeat their pricing decision on the first day of every month. Suppose they have been cooperating for the past few months, but now the manager at Kaiser is trying to decide whether to cheat or to continue cooperating. Kaiser’s manager believes Kaiser can get away with cheating for two months, but he also believes that Kaiser would be punished for the next two months after cheating. After punishment, Kaiser’s manager expects the two firms would return to cooperation. Kaiser’s manager ignores the time-value of money and does not discount future benefits or costs. What is the monthly gain to Kaiser from cheating? What is the present value of the benefit from cheating for the two months of cheating?arrow_forwardAlcoa and Kaiser, duopolists in the market for primary aluminum ingot, choose prices of their 500 foot rolls of sheet aluminum on the first day of the month. The following payoff table shows their monthly payoffs resulting from the pricing decisions they can make. Suppose Alcoa and Kaiser repeat their pricing decision on the first day of every month. Suppose they have been cooperating for the past few months, but now the manager at Kaiser is trying to decide whether to cheat or to continue cooperating. Kaiser’s manager believes Kaiser can get away with cheating for two months, but he also believes that Kaiser would be punished for the next two months after cheating. After punishment, Kaiser’s manager expects the two firms would return to cooperation. What is the monthly cost of punishment to Kaiser? What is the present value of the cost of cheating for the two months of punishment?arrow_forward
- There are two firms in an industry, Firm A and Firm B. If firm A and firm B both advertise, they each will earn $5 million in profits. If neither firm advertises, they will each earn $10 million in profits. However, if one firm advertises and the other does not, the firm that advertises will earn $15 million and the non-advertising firm will earn $1 million. List all Nash equilibrium to this game. Both firms advertise Firm A advertises and Firm B does not Firm B advertises and Firm B does not Neither firm advertises No Nash equilbrium existsarrow_forwardBoeing and Airbus are the two primary producers of passenger aircraft. Both firms are preparing to announce their new long-distance jets. Each firm can design their plan to maximize comfort or the number of seats. If both firms choose to maximize the same characteristic they will sell 100 planes each and if they maximize different characteristics they will each sell 150 planes each. Both firms want to maximize sales. Draw a game tree and find the equilibrium strategies and payoffs. Show your work.arrow_forwardConsider a situation where two firms, 1 and 2, compete by choosing prices simultaneously. They can either compete (charge a low price) or cooperate (collude, charging a high price). The firms play this competition game repeatedly and indefinitely, using a grim trigger strategy to incentivize cooperation. They use the same interest rate, i , to discount future payoffs. Payoffs are $4,050 when both firms cooperate and $3,600 when they compete. If one firm charge a low price while the other charges a high price, the firm charging the low price gets $7,200, and the other gets zero. Which of the following statements is correct?(a) For any i < 1/7 the firms will cooperate(b) For any i > 1/8 the firms will cooperate(c) For i = 1/9 the firms will be indifferent between cooperating or competing(d) There is no way to sustain cooperation in this scenarioarrow_forward
- Suppose there are only two firms that sell smartphones, Flashfone and Pictech. The payoff matrix that follows shows the profit (in millions of dollars) each company will earn, depending on whether it sets a high or low price for its phones. For example, the lower-left cell shows that if Flashfone prices low and Pictech prices high, Flashfone will earn a profit of $6 million and Pictech will earn a profit of $1 million. Assume this is a simultaneous game and that Flashfone and Pictech are both profit-maximizing firms.arrow_forwardPfizer and a competitor, Astra-Zeneca, are considering developing a new drug for a particular illness at the same time. The illness is relatively rare but the fixed cost of production is very high. In particular, the forecast demand for such a drug is insufficient to cover both firms’ costs. Analyse the interaction between the two firms using game theory. Present a payoff matrix to model the situation and analyse it for Nash equilibrium. What can either of these firms do to make their best, most- preferred outcome more likely?arrow_forwardThe only two firms in a market are trying to decide what price to charge. The payoff matrix for this duopoly game is shown below. The payoffs are thousands of dollars of economic profit. In the Nash equilibrium, A). Firm A and Firm B are both making $80,000 in economic profit. B). Firm A and Firm B are both making $75,000 in economic profit. C). Firm A is making $80,000 and Firm B is making $75,000 in economic profit. D). Firm A and Firm B are both making $60,000 in economic profit.arrow_forward
- Two firms are playing an infinitely-repeated prisoner's dilemma pricing game of the following form: Firm 1 Firm 2 Low price High Price Low price 4, 4 20, 0 High price 0, 20 12,12 Consider the decision to cheat ONLY ONCE for a firm in this game against the opponent that is a Tit-for-Tat player. Cheating firm gets an extra in payoffs for the first round, but has to face $0 payoffs for the second round in order to be able to bring the opponent to the collusive outcome again in the third round. What is the minimum rate of return (r) that would make defecting only once? Show your calculations.arrow_forwardIn the collusion game, collusion was only sustainable in the infinite horizon repeated game. One Nash Equilibrium of that game can be found when all players play a “grim trigger” strategy, where they collude until an opponent chooses to compete, and then compete for all future rounds as a punishment. In such a game, if the one period bonus that comes from competing is low enough, firms always collude and the punishment is never triggered. Is the punishment (vowing to compete forever after one deviates) realistic, especially if firms can communicate freely? Why or why not? (Hint: Is a grim trigger Nash Equilibrium a Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium? What kinds of Nash Equilibria does Subgame erfection rule out in sequential games?)arrow_forwardThe London Metro Bus is crowded for travel during peak hours. During such travel hours two daily passengers ‘James’ and ‘Robert’ enter the Metro. Luckily, two adjacent seats are free in the bus. Each of them must decide whether to sit or stand. For both, sitting alone is more comfortable than sitting next to the other person, which in turn is more comfortable than standing. consider James as ‘row player’ and Robert as ‘column player). a) Model the situation as a strategic game, assuming both ‘James’ and ‘Robert’ care only about their own comfort. Find the Nash equilibrium (equilibria) if it exists. Also, does a dominant strategy exist for either ‘James’ or ‘Robert’? show ALL steps and working in support to the answerarrow_forward
arrow_back_ios
SEE MORE QUESTIONS
arrow_forward_ios
Recommended textbooks for you
Managerial Economics: A Problem Solving ApproachEconomicsISBN:9781337106665Author:Luke M. Froeb, Brian T. McCann, Michael R. Ward, Mike ShorPublisher:Cengage Learning
Managerial Economics: Applications, Strategies an...EconomicsISBN:9781305506381Author:James R. McGuigan, R. Charles Moyer, Frederick H.deB. HarrisPublisher:Cengage Learning
Exploring EconomicsEconomicsISBN:9781544336329Author:Robert L. SextonPublisher:SAGE Publications, Inc
Managerial Economics: A Problem Solving Approach
Economics
ISBN:9781337106665
Author:Luke M. Froeb, Brian T. McCann, Michael R. Ward, Mike Shor
Publisher:Cengage Learning
Managerial Economics: Applications, Strategies an...
Economics
ISBN:9781305506381
Author:James R. McGuigan, R. Charles Moyer, Frederick H.deB. Harris
Publisher:Cengage Learning
Exploring Economics
Economics
ISBN:9781544336329
Author:Robert L. Sexton
Publisher:SAGE Publications, Inc