This paper analyses the profitability of horizontal mergers in a Stackelberg model and their impact on welfare when there is uncertainty about the marginal costs of the newly merged firms. The authors consider that the merging firms decide their production strategy knowing the actual value of...

We consider firms perfectly symmetrical on production costs in the pre-merger game but the cost of the merged entity may be amended due to the anti-competitive effects of the merger. The lack of empirical precision concerning the effect of the merger on production costs (Scherer, 1980 or Tichy,...

We analyze the strategic use of the debt in a duopoly model of Cournot competition. We consider a two stage model where debt acts as a commitment variable and we characterize subgame perfect equilibria. We differ from several models based on the strategic value of the debt such as Wanzenried...

The aim of this paper is to present, to analyze and to compare models in the field of industrial organization in which firms can strategically use their debt in order to influence the market structure or the degree of competition within the industry. The original feature of this particular trend...

Economists and demographers have long argued that fertility differs by income (differential fertility), and that social security creates incentives for people to rear fewer children. Does the effect of social security on fertility differ by income? How does social security change the...

This paper studies the effects of health shocks on the demand for health insurance and annuities, along with precautionary saving in a dynamic life-cycle model. I argue that when the health shock can simultaneously increase health expenses and reduce longevity, rational agents would neither...