This paper investigates the preference for the Stackelberg leader/follower roles in a mixed duopoly, where a welfare-maximizing public firm competes with a profit-maximizing private firm. In contrast to the well known relationship in a private duopoly, we demonstrate that if a firm's reaction...

We discuss optimal privatization policies in mixed oligopolies in which a public firm is the Stackelberg follower (private leadership). We find that under constant marginal cost, the optimal degree of privatization is zero. When the marginal cost is increasing, however, the optimal degree is...