Andrea Forneris

Computer Science and Simulation for Economics

Project work on

"Oligopolistic market and demand curve."

 

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created with NetLogo

view/download model file: oligopoly.nlogo

WHAT IS IT?

This model is trying to show how are determined the prices and quantities in a oligopoly market where there are few firms and several customers.


HOW IT WORKS

Each customer choices the firm according to the lowest distance from it, the biggest quality and the lowest price.
The quality also denotes a certain degree of product differences in market with omogenous products. So prices do not esclusively drive the market but other secondary characteristics of different services included into quality have to take place.
On the other hand the firms with a decrease in sale have to reduce the price to increase the demand from clients compared to their behaviours.


HOW TO USE IT

The transactions cost is utilized like a threshold in fact if distances from each customer to firms are bigger then it he/she cannot move because the companies are far and it is not convenient to reach them.


THINGS TO NOTICE

Various simulations make different kinds of demand curve e.g. a kinded demand curve, a monopolistically competive demand curve or a perfectly competive demand curve.
The companies are playing an unconscious Nash equilibrium.


THINGS TO TRY

Try to move the number of firms and customers and to insert restrictions on movement of customers to denote what happens to the graph of price and quantity of equilibrium.


EXTENDING THE MODEL

* The customers do not always go around but after one step they return to their initial positions;
* There are different transactions costs for each customers;
* There are no unsatisfied customers so someone could exchange the good not at a minimun price but with the nearer firm;
* The initial quantity may be different for each customers.


NETLOGO FEATURES

There are two output-files used to control if the demand curve could be similar to the theory demand in a oligopoly market.


AUTHOR

Andrea Forneris


CREDITS AND REFERENCES

CREDITS:
http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/HubNetOilCartel
REFERENCES:
Robert. S. Pindyck Daniel L. Rubinfeld, Microeconomia, Zanichelli.