The Closed-Loop Motive for Voluntary Export Restraints.

This paper examines the effects of voluntary export restraints in a dynamic game model of duopolistic competition. It is shown that the imposition of a voluntary export restraint at the free-trade level of imports increases the market price and the profits of all firms in the industry if free trade is identified as the closed-loop (subgame-perfect) Cournot equilibrium of the game. Hence, the authors conclude that the predictions of static Cournot competition do not carry over to the dynamic case.