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Acquisition of Market Information, Returns to Scale and the Viability of Competitive Equilibrium
Author(s) -
Eboli Mario
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
metroeconomica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.256
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-999X
pISSN - 0026-1386
DOI - 10.1111/1467-999x.t01-1-00135
Subject(s) - economics , microeconomics , competitive equilibrium , production (economics) , incentive , returns to scale , scale (ratio) , economies of scale , marginal cost , perfect competition , risk aversion (psychology) , financial economics , expected utility hypothesis , physics , quantum mechanics
In this paper the economies of scale arising from the acquisition of costly information and their implications for the existence of a competitive equilibrium are investigated. As is known, the existence of economies in the scale of production undermines the possibility of a competitive equilibrium. This paper demonstrates that this kind of problem arises when firms face market uncertainty, i.e. in competitive markets, uncertainty about the price of production factors or about the price of output. It is shown that, under these circumstances, firms have incentives to purchase market information, i.e. information capable of reducing price uncertainty. In turn, the acquisition of costly information generates economies of scale that prevent the occurrence of a competitive equilibrium, unless such increasing returns to scale are tamed by the decreasing utility of uncertain returns due to risk aversion, or—in the short run—by increasing marginal costs of production.