Regulating a Monopolist with Unknown Demand and Cost Functions
研究监管者在同时不了解企业成本函数和需求函数时如何设计最优监管政策,发现最优政策并非简单组合,且价格可能低于边际成本。
We consider the design of regulatory policy when the regulator is imperfectly informed about both the firm's cost function and the demand function it faces. To some extent, the optimal policy is the natural "combination" of the policies when there is uncertainty about demand alone or cost alone. But important qualitative differences also exist. For example, prices may optimally be set below marginal cost when there is uncertainty about both cost and demand, although prices will never fall below marginal cost when there is only a single source of uncertainty , whether it pertains to cost or demand.