Consider the Hotelling linear spatial duopoly with firm uncertainty over the consumer mean. As uncertainty about the mean grows relative to the dispersion of consumers, competitive locations become socially optimal. A limit result for discontinuous, log-concave densities is also established.

Sufficient conditions for a unique price equilibrium, in terms of the uncertainty distribution and the state contingent consumer distributions, are given for spatial duopoly. Also considered are efficiency and endogenous locations for the symmetric case and comparative statics on price flexibility.

We revisit the classic comparison between Bertrand and Cournot outcomes in a mixed market with private and public firms. The results are often strikingly different and opposite to the ones obtained from a similar comparison in the standard setting with all profit-maximizing firms.