DP5023 Reciprocal Dumping with Bertrand Competition

• Mattias Ganslandt Richard Friberg
23 Apr 2005

This paper examines if international trade can reduce total welfare in an international oligopoly with differentiated goods. We show that welfare is a U-shaped function in the transport cost as long as trade occurs in equilibrium. With a Cournot duopoly trade can reduce welfare compared to autarky for any degree of product differentiation. Under Bertrand competition we show that trade may reduce welfare compared to autarky, if firms produce sufficiently close substitutes and the autarky equilibrium is sufficiently competitive. Otherwise it cannot.