Did the Swedish Tobacco Monopoly Set Monopoly Prices?
利用1916-1959年数据，研究瑞典烟草垄断企业的定价是否低于利润最大化水平，发现实际利润仅为潜在利润的60%，但差距随时间缩小，企业可能是在学习需求而非追求其他目标。
Empirical evidence is scarce on whether firms set profit‐maximizing prices, as these typically depend delicately on details of difficult‐to‐observe strategic interactions. To avoid this problem, this paper provides a detailed case study of the Swedish Tobacco Monopoly's pricing with data from 1916 to 1959. Prices are found to be below those that maximize the expected net present value of profits. However, the difference between actual and optimal price diminishes over time, and towards the end of the period the two are almost indistinguishable. The net present value of actual profits is approximately 60% of what could have been obtained. Overall, the pricing patterns appear more consistent with the firm learning about demand conditions than being the result of maximization of something other than profits.