A computational model of competing multi-unit firms, such as a retail chain, is developed in which unit managers and corporate staff continually search for better practices while consumers search among units to find a better match. The main objective of this research is to determine how the...

It is generally believed that industries with greater product differentiation have higher rates of return. This paper shows that this effect breaks down in the presence of firm-specific cost shocks. Greater substitutability in products generates two opposing effects: (1) it allows a larger...

A computational model of a retail chain is developed in which store managers continually search for better practices. Search takes place over a rugged landscape defined over the space of store practices. The main objective of this research is to determine how the amount of discretion given to...

One of the primary challenges to measuring the impact of antitrust or competition policy on collusion is that the cartel population is unobservable; we observe only the population of discovered cartels. To address this challenge, a model of cartel creation and dissolution is developed to...

The dynamic choice between individual and social learning is explored for a population of autonomous agents whose objective is to find solutions to a stream of related problems. The probability that an agent is in the individual learning mode, as opposed to the social learning mode, evolves over...

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This paper investigates the strategic use of flexible manufacturing technology as an entry-deterring mechanism. It is shown that, when consumers' tastes fluctuate probabilistically , an incumbent threatened with potential entry installs flexible manufacturing technology for a larger set of...

In Chang and Harrington (2000a) a computational model of a multi-unit firm is developed in which unit managers continually search for better practices Search takes place over a rugged landscape defined over the space of unit practices There it is shown that a more centralized organization is...