We examine the implications of biased-lower marginal, but higher fixed, cost-technical change in a model of oligopoly. Such changes create an incentive for firms to adopt new technologies in a quest for increased output, market share, and profits. These individual incentives lead to a prisoner's dilemma: the increase in firms' outputs causes market price to fall. The analysis specifies conditions under which the decrease in price will result in lower profits for both the individual firms and the industry as a whole.
Anderson, Simon and Maxim Engers. 1992. Stackelberg versus Cournot Oligopoly Equilibrium. International Journal of Industrial Organization10 (1): 127-135.
2.
Dumenil, Gerard and Dominique Levy. 1994. The Economics of the Profit Rate. Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing Company.
Laibman, David. 1982. Technical Change, the Real Wage, and the Rate of Exploitation. Review of Radical Political Economics14 (4): 95-105.
5.
Lazonick, William. 1990. Competitive Advantage on the Shop Floor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
6.
Michl, Thomas R., 1994. Three Models of Falling Rate of Profit. Review of Radical Political Economics26 (4): 55-75.
7.
Okishio, Nubio, 1961. Technical Change and the Rate of Profit. Kobe University Economic Review7: 85-89.
8.
Shaikh, Anwar. 1978. Political Economy and Capitalism: Notes on Dobb's Theory of Crisis. Cambridge Journal of Economics2 (2): 233-251.
9.
Skott, Peter. 1992. Imperfect Competition and the Theory of the Falling Rate of Profit. Review of Radical Political Economics24 (1): 101-113.
10.
Van Parijs, Philippe. 1980. The Falling-Rate-of-Profit Theory of Crisis: A Rational Reconstruction by Way of Obituary. Review of Radical Political Economics12 (1): 1-16.