Document Type : Viewpoint

Author

Department of Economics, Institute for Economic Sciences, Osaka, Japan

Abstract

This paper examines an oligopoly game model with a concave demand function where labor-managed firms compete in quantities with each other. There is no possibility of entry or exit. The timing of the game is as follows. In the first stage, each labor-managed firm simultaneously and independently chooses the level of social concern. In the second stage, each labor-managed firm simultaneously and independently chooses whether to offer lifetime employment as a strategic commitment device. In the third stage, quantity competition takes place. This paper examines the reaction functions of labor-managed firms in the model. First, the paper presents the reaction functions of labor-managed firms in the game model. It is shown that the reaction functions of labor-managed firms have both upward and downward sloping cases. Next, the paper provides a simple example to support the above result. This example shows a case in which the reaction functions of labor-managed firms are downward-sloping.

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©2022 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

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