This paper deals with a polling game on a graph. Initially, each vertex is colored white or black. At each round, each vertex is colored by the color shared by the majority of vertices in its neighborhood. (All recolorings are done simultaneously). We say that a set W0 of vertices is a dynamic monopoly or dynamo if starting the game with the vertices ofW0 colored white, the entire system is whi...

Considerable attention has focused on US District Court Judge Jackson’s preliminary fact findings about the Microsoft half of the Wintel monopoly. But the November 5, 1999, decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, exonerating allegedly monopolistic conduct of the Intel half of Wintel-dom, has gone almost unremarked. This month’s Micro Law updates the July-August 1998 Micro L...

This paper solves merger formation problem in Cournot oligopolies by a cooperative and computational approach. In three-firm linear oligopolies, monopoly will be formed (or be stable) if its merging cost is sufficiently low and cost differentials are sufficiently large. When monopoly is unprofitable due to high merging costs, a profitable two-member merger will be formed if its efficient member...

We analyze the trade-off between monopoly and competition in matching markets. Intermediaries use prices to sort agents on one side of the market, while, on the other side, they rely solely on an imperfect screening technology. The socially efficient outcome is characterized by an optimal quality provision and an efficient market coverage: matched agents are matched assortatively and all agents...

The Internet provides an unprecedented capability for sellers to learn about their customers and offer custom products at special prices. In addition, customization is more feasible today because of advances in manufacturing technologies that have improved sellers’ manufacturing flexibility. We first develop a model of product customization and flexible pricing to incorporate the salient roles ...

In Neotropical wet forests several species of omnivorous, resource-defending ants, live and forage in close proximity to one another. Although the forest floor is heterogeneous in microhabitat and food quantity, little is known about the impact of microhabitat and food variation upon resource monopoly among ants. We investigated how food type and microhabitat influence food monopoly in resource...

This paper studies the value and optimal timing for investment in finite-lived monopolies, extending the literature on real option games by considering the cases of random and certain-lived monopolies. Under these settings, firms face the risk of demonopolization, that can occur as a random or a certain event. We show that these new settings produce significantly different results when compared...