Differential Games in Industrial Economics

Game theory has revolutionised our understanding of industrial organisation and the traditional theory of the firm. Despite these advances, industrial economists have tended to rely on a restricted set of tools from game theory, focusing on static and repeated games to analyse firm structure and behaviour. Luca Lambertini, a leading expert on the application of differential game theory to economics, argues that many dynamic phenomena in industrial organisation (such as monopoly, oligopoly, advertising, R&D races) can be better understood and analysed through the use of differential games. After illustrating the basic elements of the theory, Lambertini guides the reader through the main models, spanning from optimal control problems describing the behaviour of a monopolist through to oligopoly games in which firms' strategies include prices, quantities and investments. This approach will be of great value to students and researchers in economics and those interested in advanced applications of game theory.

1. Elements of optimal control, dynamic programming and differential game theory; 2. Monopoly; 3. Oligopoly; 4. Advertising; 5. Product differentiation; 6. Innovation; 7. The environment and natural resources; 8. International trade; 9. Stackelberg games; Index.

Luca Lambertini is Professor of Economics at the Università degli Studi, Bologna, Italy. He is a member of the International Federation of Automatic Control, collaborator of the Dynamic Systems Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and Associate Editor of Dynamic Games and Applications. He has published extensively in international journals, including Automatica, the Journal of Economic Theory, European Journal of Operational Research and the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control.