INFORMATION SHARING AND OLIGOPOLY IN AGRICULTURAL MARKETS: THE ROLE OF BARGAINING ASSOCIATIONS
研究农产品加工企业在不确定需求下共享信息的动机，发现信息共享虽能提高总福利但可能降低企业利润，且存在囚徒困境；农业议价协会可通过承诺和可验证报告克服这一困境。
We study incentives for information sharing (about uncertain future demand for final output) among firms in imperfectly competitive markets for farm output. Information sharing generally leads to increases in expected total welfare but may reduce expected firm profits. Even when expected firm profits increase, information sharing does not represent equilibrium behavior because firms face a prisoner?s dilemma in which it is privately rational for each firm to withhold information, given that other firms report truthfully. This equilibrium can be overcome if firms commit to simultaneously reporting their information and if reports are verifiable. We argue that agricultural bargaining associations serve both these roles.