Authors
Emilio Calvano, Giacomo Calzolari, Vincenzo Denicoló, Sergio Pastorello
Publication date
2021/12/1
Journal
International journal of industrial organization
Volume
79
Pages
102712
Publisher
North-Holland
Description
We show that if they are allowed enough time to complete the learning, Q-learning algorithms can learn to collude in an environment with imperfect monitoring adapted from Green and Porter (1984), without having been instructed to do so, and without communicating with one another. Collusion is sustained by punishments that take the form of “price wars” triggered by the observation of low prices. The punishments have a finite duration, being harsher initially and then gradually fading away. Such punishments are triggered both by deviations and by adverse demand shocks.
Total citations
20212022202320247152112
Scholar articles
E Calvano, G Calzolari, V Denicoló, S Pastorello - International journal of industrial organization, 2021