Economics: Faculty Publications

A Sequential Signaling Model of the Sale of an Invention to an Oligopolist

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-13-2004

Publication Title

The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics: Topics

DOI

10.2202/1534-598X.1117

ISSN

1534-598X

Abstract

I consider the problem of an independent inventor attempting to sell a cost-reducing innovation in an oligopoly setting. There are N potential buyers and the inventor possesses private information regarding the value of the invention. A revealing equilibrium is characterized in which the inventor's demand signals the value of the invention to each potential buyer. I find that both the inventor's demand and his continuation value increase as the number of firms left in the sequence of potential buyers increases. I also find that a firm's probability of rejecting the inventor's demand is higher the sooner the firm is approached in the sequence.

Copyright

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