Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
This paper seeks to explain why monopolies keep their nominal prices constant for longer periods than do tight oligopolies. The authors show that cost changes create a larger incentive for duopolists to change their prices, while demand changes tend to have a greater effect on a monopolist. When both costs and demand are affected by small changes in the overall price level, the cost effect dominates. In the presence of a small fixed cost of changing prices, therefore, duopolists change their prices in response to smaller perturbations in underlying conditions. Copyright 1987 by American Economic Association.