The impact of inventory risk on market prices under competition
研究发现，由于库存风险的存在，竞争者数量增加反而可能导致市场价格上升，且企业可能更愿意承担库存风险而非规避它。该结论通过课堂实验、量化反应均衡模拟和纳什均衡模型三种方法验证。
Abstract Firms often must procure inventory/capacity before knowing what the demand will be, so there is a potential for a mismatch between inventory and demand, the “inventory risk.” We show that, because of inventory risk, an increase in the number of competitors can lead to an increasing trend in market prices. Furthermore, we show that, ceteris paribus, because of how inventory risk impacts competitive behavior, firms may prefer to incur inventory risk rather than to avoid it. To illustrate the robustness of our results, we establish these findings using three complementary methodologies: (i) using data from a classroom experiment, (ii) using a quantal response equilibrium simulation to capture realistic irrationalities in managerial decisions under competition, and (iii) using a fully rational Nash equilibrium model to capture the impact of the competition per se. That all three methods lead to identical qualitative findings reinforces the main message of our paper: Inventory risk reverses the standard intuition for how an increase in the number of competitors impacts prices.