In: Economics
Consider an imperfect competition market with only three firms. The demand facing the kth firm in market (where k=1,2, and 3) is given below
Qk=S(1/3-B(Pk-P)
where Qk is the quantity demand facing the firm k, S is industry size, Pk is the price set by firm k, P is the average price in the industry, and B is a population parameter that could be estimated using sample evidence
A) Assuming that Pk=KP" (where P" is a constant and K=1,2, and 3) show that the demand facing the 2nd firm does not depend on the parameter B
B) Relax the assumption in part a and derive the algebraic relationship for the elasticity of demand facing the 1st firm with respect to its own prices.
*Elasticity of interest is defined as Eq1p1=%Q1 / % Change in P1