Repository logo
 

Does Competition Solve the Hold-up Problem?

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Roberts, K 

Abstract

© 2016 The London School of Economics and Political Science. In an environment in which heterogeneous buyers and sellers undertake ex ante investments, the presence of market competition for matches provides incentives for investment but may leave inefficiencies, namely hold-up and coordination problems. This paper shows, using an explicitly non-cooperative model, that when matching is assortative and investments precede market competition, buyers' investments are constrained efficient while sellers marginally underinvest with respect to what would be constrained efficient. However, the overall extent of this inefficiency may be large. Multiple equilibria may arise; one equilibrium is characterized by efficient matches, but there can be additional equilibria with coordination failures. Economica

Description

Keywords

38 Economics, 3801 Applied Economics, 3803 Economic Theory, 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Journal Title

Economica

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0013-0427
1468-0335

Volume Title

83

Publisher

Wiley

Rights

All rights reserved