Discussion Paper No. 777

MARKET COMPETITION,
R&D AND FIRM PROFITSIN ASYMMETRIC OLIGOPOLY

Junichiro IshidaToshihiro Matsumura
Noriaki Matsushima

May 2010

The Institute of Social and Economic Research
Osaka University
6-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan

Market Competition, R&D and Firm Profits in Asymmetric
Oligopoly∗
Junichiro Ishida†
Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University
Toshihiro Matsumura‡Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo
Noriaki Matsushima§
Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University
May 24, 2010

Abstract
We investigate a Cournot model with strategic R&D investments wherein efficient
low-cost firms compete against less efficient high-cost firms. We find that an increase in
the number of high-cost firms can stimulate R&D by the low-cost firms, while it always
reduces R&D by the high-cost firms. More importantly, this force can be strong enoughto compensate for the loss that arises from more intense market competition: the low-cost
firms’ profits may indeed increase with the number of high-cost firms. An implicationof this result is far-reaching, as it gives low-cost firms an incentive to help, rather thanharm, high-cost competitors. We relate this implication to a practice known as open
knowledge disclosure, especially Ford’s strategy of disclosing its know-how publicly andextensively at the beginning of the 20th century.

JEL classification: L13, O32, M21
Key words: competition, oligopoly, R&D, heterogeneity, entry.
∗
An earlier version of this paper was circulated under the title “When Market Competition Benefits
Firms.” We would like to thank Masahiro Ashiya, Naoko Nishimura, Dan Sasaki, Nicolaos Vettas, Wen
Zhou, seminar participants at CPRC, EARIE2009, GRIPS, Kwansei Gakuin University, Niigata University,
Osaka Prefecture University, Shinshu University, two anonymous referees and the editor, Patrick Legros,for their helpful comments and suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Grant-in-Aid
from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Needless to say, we are responsible for any
remaining errors.
†
Corresponding author: Junichiro Ishida, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University,
6-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan. E-mail: jishida@iser.osaka-u.ac.jp‡
Toshihiro Matsumura, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo,
113-0033, Japan. E-mail: matsumur@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp§
Noriaki Matsushima, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, 6-1 Mihogaoka,
Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan. E-mail: nmatsush@iser.osaka-u.ac.jp

1

Introduction

We investigate strategic R&D investment competition in an asymmetric Cournot model.1
The basic setup is deceptively simple and standard except for one twist: there are two typesof firms which differ in terms of the initial marginal cost of production. For expositional
clarity, we refer to firms with the lower marginal cost as low-cost firms and those with thehigher marginal cost as high-cost firms. Before engaging in Cournot competition, each firm
has a chance to reduce its marginal cost through R&D investments. Within this setup, we
explore how the intensity of market competition, measured by an increase in the number of(high-cost) firms, affects each firm’s incentive for R&D investments as well as its resulting
equilibrium profit.
The present setup yields several new results, pointing to the potential importance of theinitial cost asymmetry in strategic R&D competition. First, an increase in the number ofhigh-cost firms can stimulate R&D by the low-cost firms while it always reduces R&D by thehigh-cost firms: as a result, accelerated competition enlarges the ex post efficiency dispersion(the difference in the marginal costs after the investment stage) between low-cost and highcost firms. Second, the ex post efficiency dispersion caused by R&D competition can be large
enough to compensate for the loss that arises from more intense market competition: thelow-cost firms’ profits can indeed increase with the number of high-cost firms. These results
are in stark contrast to the standard setup where an increase in the number of firms typicallyreduces the amount of R&D investments, not to mention the equilibrium profits. Third, anincrease in the number of firms can increase the Herfindal Index (HHI) because of the widening efficiency dispersion, although it can be welfare-improving due to the scale economies
of R&D investments. Finally, accelerated competition has a non-monotonic impact on theindustry-wide rate of innovation if the ex ante efficiency dispersion (the difference in themarginal costs before the investment stage) is in some intermediate range.
1

The standard model of strategic R&D is formulated by Brander and Spencer (1983), and the literature

dealing with strategic R&D competition is now fairly abundant (Spence (1984), d’Aspremont and Jacquemin(1988), Suzumura (1992), Lahiri and Ono (1999), and Kitahara and Matsumura (2006)). The last two papers
also focus on initial cost difference among firms but dos not investigate the relationship between market
competition and R&D.

1

The key to our argument is the link between the ex ante efficiency dispersion among
competing firms and the strategic incentive for R&D investments.2 The investment to reduce
its own marginal cost works as a commitment to expand its production, which typically
crowds out the other firms’ output by some margin. This strategic gain is actually increasingin the number of competitors, as a unit decrease in the marginal cost can affect more firms
when more of them are around. When this gain is sufficiently large, an increase in thenumber of competitors can actually induce some firms to invest more, consequently making
them more efficient. As we will see, this could indeed happen for the low-cost firms, butnever for the high-cost firms, implying that more intense market competition tends to further
widen the ex post efficiency dispersion. As the market becomes more competitive, each highcost firm becomes less motivated and less efficient, consequently leaving more rents to be
exploited by the low-cost firms. This gives competitive edges to the low-cost firms and, when
this effect is strong enough to compensate for the loss that arises from more intense market
competition, their profits rise with more high-cost competitors around.
Several recent studies have raised instances where an increase in the number of firms may
actually increase firm profit. Mukherjee and Zhao (2009) consider an asymmetric Stackelberg
setting where there are two incumbent firms (leader) with different marginal costs and apotential entrant (follower) with a higher marginal cost. They then show that the existenceof the inefficient follower can increase the profit of the more efficient leader. The driving
force of this paper is clearly different from ours as it stems from the fact that firms movesequentially. Coughlan and Soberman (2005), Chen and Riordan (2007), and Ishibashi andMatsushima (2009) also obtain similar results in simultaneous-move varieties.3 In those cases,
2

In this paper, the initial productivity is defined in terms of the ex ante marginal cost (before any

investment takes place), but a similar conclusion is expected to arise when it is defined in a variety of otherways. We make some comments on this in the concluding section.
3

Several papers consider vertical relations between downstream and upstream firms and show that market

entry can increase the incumbent downstream firms (Tyagi (1999), Mukherjee et al. (2009)). The main logic
behind these results is common: entry in a downstream market causes the decrease in the wholesale price. In
a bilateral oligopoly model, Naylor (2002) shows that an increase in the number of downstream firms could
increase the total industry profit because more intense downstream competition shifts bargaining power infavor of the downstream firms. There is also a line of works which argue that having weak competitors might
help because it keeps stronger competitors out of the market. See, for instance, Ashiya (2000) on this point.

2however, market entry works as a commitment device to soften market competition, so thatthe market actually becomes less competitive as more firms enter into it. In contrast, thelow-cost firms in our model benefits more directly from intense market competition. Thisdifference is summarized most succinctly by the following (possibly empirically testable)feature of our model: the equilibrium market price is decreasing in the number of firms in
our model while it is increasing in theirs. Although we do not know a priori which scenario
is more plausible, as it certainly depends on the minute details of the underlying structure,
this fact may be used to discriminate between our mechanism and other existing ones when
examining more specific cases.
The paper is also related to the literature which examines Cournot models with asymmetric firms.4 In particular, Salant and Shaffer (1999) show that the total industry profit increases as the marginal costs become more asymmetric while keeping the sum of the marginal
costs constant.5 There is some connection with this work because the dispersion in themarginal costs widens in our model as the number of firms increases. Aside from this, however, the question we pose here is inherently different, largely on two accounts. First, ourprimary interest is in the impact of accelerated market competition, as captured by an increase in the number of firms, while Salant and Shaffer (1999) consider a setting where thenumber of firms is held constant. Second, given this difference in the scope, we then look at
how each individual firm’s profit, instead of the total industry profit, changes with respect toan increase in the number of firms.6 Firm asymmetries per se virtually have no bite for thequestion of our interest, because each individual firm’s profit must decrease as the number offirms increases in typical Cournot models for any given distribution of the marginal costs, nomatter how large firm asymmetries are to begin with. This fact hence suggests that a criticalpoint of departure is our explicit focus on R&D incentives, which allows us to endogenize
4

Daughety (2008) provides a succinct review on basic properties of Cournot models.

5This result owes largely to the fact that the total output depends only on the sum of the marginal costs.

See Bergstrom and Varian (1985) on this point.
6

It goes without saying that the profit of a firm whose marginal cost decreases must increase in the setup

of Salant and Shaffer (1999). Our question about individual firm profit hence carries little significance when
the number of firms is fixed. On the other hand, Salant and Shaffer (1999) has nothing to say about the casewhere the number of firms increases, which typically yields some impacts in Cournot models.

3

the cost structure of an industry. Although the widening dispersion in the marginal costs
works as an intermediate force along the way, this is an endogenous feature of our model(and, incidentally, one of our main contentions) which is derived in response to an increasein the number of firms.
The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 outlines the basic environment, illustrates fundamental forces behind our setup, and derives main results. Section 3 discusses implicationsof the model, especially relating it to a practice known as open knowledge disclosure andwhat we call the Ford story. Finally, section 4 offers some concluding remarks.

2Competition and market outcomes in asymmetric oligopoly

2.1

Setup

In order to make our point emphatically, we stick with a simple and standardized version of
Cournot competition, augmented with cost-reducing R&D investments, as much as possible.
Consider an industry consisting of n firms, each denoted by i ∈ {1, 2, ..., n} ≡ N . We takethe number of firms exogenous and fixed, except for section 2.5 where we briefly discuss thecase of free entry. The model has two stages: each firm first chooses the investment level,
which subsequently determines its marginal cost of production, and then engages in Cournot
competition taking the realized marginal costs as given.
Let xi denote the investment level chosen by firm i. A unit increase in the investment
decreases the firm’s marginal cost by the same margin. The total production cost incurredby the firm is thus given by (zi − xi )qi , where qi denotes the output level chosen by firmi. In this specification, zi signifies the ex ante marginal cost (before the investment), whileci ≡ zi − xi the ex post marginal cost (after the investment). We assume that the cost of
the investment is given by by γxi 2 . The parameter γ reflects the importance of the R&D
investment where a small γ means that endogenous cost reduction is an important part ofthe production process.
In the second stage, upon observing xi for all i ∈ N , the firms engage in standard Cournot(quantity) competition. The inverse demand function is specified as
p = 1 − Q,4(1)

where Q =Pi∈N qiis the total output. Each firm simultaneously chooses qi so as tomaximize its own profit.
As can be seen, the basic setup is a text-book Cournot model with strategic R&D investments, except that we allow zi to differ across firms. To illustrate our contention clearlyand emphatically, for most of the analysis, we consider a case where there is one low-costfirm (firm 1) with z1 = zL and n − 1 high-cost firms (firms 2-n) with zi = zH > zL . In what
follows, we examine subgame perfect equilibria of this complete-information game.

2.2

Competition stimulates investments by the rich

In this subsection, we go through the optimization problems faced by each firm. Since themodel is standard enough, we only briefly sketch the outline of the analysis.
In the second stage, given the realized marginal costs for all i ∈ N , each firm chooses its
output qi . Each firm’s problem in this stage can be written as!
nX
qj − ci qi .
max πi ≡ 1 −qi

j=1

Assuming that the interior solutions exist, the equilibrium output is obtained asP
1 + j6=i (zj − xj ) − n(zi − xi )
.
qi =
n+1

(2)

It follows from this that the optimal output is a function of the investment levels, and wewrite qiE (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ), where superscript E henceforth denotes the equilibrium value of
any respective endogenous variable. This immediately leads us to obtain the equilibrium(gross) profit of each firm:
πiE (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) =

1−

n
X
j=1

qjE − ci

!

qiE =

(1 +

P

2
j6=1 (zj − xj ) − n(zi − xi )),(n + 1)2(3)

which is also a function of the investment levels.
In the first stage, each firm simultaneously decides how much to invest in reducing themarginal cost. The first-period problem faced by each firm is defined as choosing xi tomaximize the net profit Πi , taking the other firms’ choices as given:maxxi

Πi (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) ≡ πiE (x1 , x2 , . . . , xn ) − γxi 2 .
5The equilibrium investment level of firm i is obtained asnXzj − ((n + 1)2 γ − n)zi n ((n + 1)γ − n) + (n + 1)γ
j=1

xE
i (n, z; zi ) =((n + 1)γ − n)((n + 1)2 γ − n).

(4)

Notice that the second-order condition is satisfied if and only ifn2− γ < 0.
(n + 1)2(5)

We assume that γ ≥ 1 so that the second order condition is satisfied for any given n. The
profit of firm i is denoted by
πi (n, z; zi ) =
22 (n + 1)
2γ− γ (xE
i (n, z; zi )) .
n2

(6)

Before we proceed further, we need to check whether the interior solutions indeed exist,
which we have thus far taken for granted. To check this, we only need to look at the high-costEEE
firms since q1E > 0 and xE
1 > 0 if qi > 0 and xi > 0, i 6= 1. For the high-cost firms, qi > 0

for any given n if and only ifzL >((2γ − 1)n + 2γ)zH − ((γ − 1)n + γ)
≡ zL.
γ(n + 1)

(7)

Notice that this is also the necessary and sufficient condition for xi > 0: with a quadratic
cost function, a firm would invest in cost reduction if and only if it produces a positive
amount. We restrict our attention to the case where zL > z L so that the high-cost firms
have some role to play.
We are interested in how an increase in n, triggered by a new entry of a high-cost firm,
affects market outcomes in this asymmetric environment. To this end, we first examine therelationship between market entry and the incentive for cost reduction.
Proposition 1 For any n > 1 and γ ≥ 1, (i) there exists some nonempty interval Z x ≡x
E(z L , zLx ) such that xE
1 is increasing in n if and only if zL ∈ Z ; (ii) xi , i 6= 1, is decreasing

in n.
The proposition makes two claims. The first claim is the more illuminating part, whichsays that the low-cost firm’s R&D investment can be increasing in n. The key factor turns
6

out to be the relative location of zH and zL , i.e., the dispersion in the ex ante marginal costs
between the low-cost and the high-cost firms. The low-cost firm is induced to make moreinvestment as n increases when the high-cost firms are ex ante sufficiently (but not too)inefficient relative to the low-cost firm. As the market become more competitive, therefore,
the dispersion in the ex post marginal costs may become even larger. Moreover, it says thatZ x is generally nonempty, meaning that we can always find some zL such that ∂xE
1 /∂n > 0.
These results are in stark contrast to the standard setup where an increase in n typicallyreduces the investment level because it implies smaller rents for innovating firms.
More intense competition is more likely to induce the low-cost firm to invest more when
the upperbound zLx is larger. Not surprisingly, this is the case when γ is relatively small,i.e., when R&D investments are sufficiently important in the production process. The next
proposition is a formal representation of this fact.
Proposition 2 For any n > 1 and γ ≥ 1, ∂zLx /∂γ < 0.
The range for which the low-cost firm’s investment increases with n can be best seengraphically. Figure 1 illustrates the range for two different values of γ. These examples
indicate that the low-cost firm’s investment increases with n for a wide range of parametervalues.
[Figure 1 here]

2.3

Competition makes the rich get richer

When zL ∈ Z x , more intense competition makes the low-cost firm even more superior in thesense that the dispersion in the ex post marginal costs becomes wider. When this effect isstrong enough to compensate the loss from more intense market competition, the low-costfirm’s profit may actually increase as more high-cost firms enter the market. This can indeed
happen, as the next proposition indicates.
Proposition 3 For any n > 1 and γ ≥ 1, (i) there exists some nonempty interval Z P ≡PE(z L , zLP ) such that ΠE
1 is increasing in n if and only if zL ∈ Z ; (ii) Πi , i 6= 1, is decreasing

in n.
7

Proposition 3 is the main result of the paper, which basically runs parallel to Proposition
1, making two claims of similar nature. In particular, it again shows that Z P is nonempty
for any given n > 1 and γ ≥ 1, and hence we can always find zL such that ∂ΠE
1 /∂n > 0.
As the market becomes more competitive, the low-cost firm invests more (if zL ∈ Z x ) andthe high-cost firms invest less. As a consequence, the dispersion in the marginal costs getseven larger at the ex post stage when the firms engage in Cournot competition. The low-costfirm can benefit from this, even though ex post market competition becomes severer as nincreases.
Competition induces the low-cost firm to invest more when γ is relatively small, and thissame logic apparently carries over to the low-cost firm’s profit. The next proposition is asequel to Proposition 2, showing that the dispersion in the ex ante marginal costs needs tobe small in environments where R&D investments are sufficiently important.
Proposition 4 For any n > 1 and γ ≥ 1, ∂zLP /∂γ < 0.
Figure 2 illustrates the range of zL for which the low-cost firm’s profit is increasing in
n, again for two different values of γ. Naturally, the range for which the low-cost firm’s
profit increases is narrower than that for which its investment increases. In fact, as can be
expected, the low-cost firm’s profit increases with n only if its investment increases with n,i.e., the former is a necessary condition of the latter.
Proposition 5 For any γ ≥ 1 and n > 1, Z P ⊂ Z x .
[Figure 2 here]
Remark:We have thus far restricted our attention to a specific distribution of the exante marginal costs, i.e., one low-cost firms and n − 1 identical high-cost firms. We mustnote that this assumption is not essential to derive our main observation, as it holds forother “nearby” distributions. In essence, whether a new market entry increases any given
firm’s profit increases depends on three factors: the firm’s own ex ante marginal cost, theaverage ex ante marginal cost among all the other incumbent firms, and the new entrant’s
ex ante marginal cost. Now suppose that there are initially n incumbent firms whose ex ante8

marginal costs are given by z = (zL , z2 , ..., zn ): here, we allow for some heterogeneity amongzi , i = 2, 3, ..., n. We then add a new firm, firm n + 1, to the market with zn+1 = ze and see
how it affects the low-cost firm’s profit. Formally, we investigate the condition under which
this entry benefits the low-cost firm, i.e.,
π1 (n, z; zL ) < π1 (n + 1, z0 ; zL ),(8)where π1 is the equilibrium net profit as given in (6) and z0 = (z, ze ). Figure 3 illustrates
this condition.7 As the figure indicates, our main contention holds even when there is someheterogeneity among the other incumbent firms as long as the entrant is sufficiently lessefficient in terms of the ex ante marginal cost.
[Figure 3 here]

2.4

What happens at the aggregate level?

Several recent studies have raised instances where incumbents benefit from a new market
entry. In those previous cases, however, the equilibrium price actually rises with a new
entrant coming into the market: market competition becomes less severe despite the factthat there are now more firms in the market. What is common among those previous studies
is therefore that they find a channel through which a market entry somehow makes themarket less competitive. In Ishibashi and Matsushima (2009), for instance, a new entry into
the low-end market works as a commitment device for the incumbents not to supply to thatmarket (hence not to lower the price to accommodate low-end consumers). This is actually
profit-enhancing for the incumbents as they can focus on the high-end market, allowing themto charge a higher price to high-end consumers.
In contrast, our model works in a totally different way. The difference is succinctly summarized by a distinguishing, and empirically testable, feature of our model: the equilibrium
price is indeed decreasing in n so that the market becomes truly more competitive as nincreases. In our model, there is nothing unusual about the impact that an increase in n has
7

When the entrant is too efficient, some incumbent firms may exit from the market; when the incumbent
firms are on average too efficient, the entrant cannot make any positive profit. The two intersecting lines in
the figure represent these conditions. The segmented line is the condition under which the entrant with ze
increases the low-cost firm’s profit.

9

on the equilibrium market price.8 To see this, the equilibrium price is computed aspE =(n + 1)(1 + (n − 1)zH + zL )γ − n,(n + 1)2 γ − n(9)which straightforwardly leads to the next result.
Proposition 6 For any n > 1 and γ ≥ 1, pE is decreasing in n.
That the equilibrium price is decreasing in n necessarily means that the total quantity
supplied is increasing. This naturally raises a question about the composition of the total
output (or the market share). To see this, let QE−1 denote the total quantity supplied by allof the high-cost firms, which is given byQE−1 =γ(n2 − 1)[(1 − 2zH + zL )(n + 1)γ − (1 − zH )n].
((n + 1)2 γ − n)((n + 1)γ − n)(10)

Surprisingly, the total output supplied by the high-cost firms may decrease with n.
Proposition 7 (i) For any n > 1 and γ ≥ 1, (i) there exists some nonempty interval
QPQx
Z Q ≡ (z L , zLQ ) such that QE−1 is decreasing in n if z1 ∈ Z ; (ii) Z ⊂ Z ⊂ Z .

It directly follows from Proposition 6 that the total quantity supplied is increasing inEn, as in standard Cournot models. This implies that if QE−1 decreases with n, then q1

must increase – yet another unusual property. This also implies that z1 ∈ Z Q is a sufficientcondition for the low-cost firm’s market share to increase with n.
Remark:

The results also yield a welfare implication of some interest. An increase in thenumber of high-cost firms can actually increase the Herfindal Index (HHI) because it enlarges
the asymmetry among firms (see Proposition 1). Nevertheless, it can be welfare-improving
because the scale economies of R&D investments can be substantial enough.9 Moreover, it
8

Of course, our intention is not to exclude those existing views on this ground because there can be manychannels through which an incumbent benefits from a market entry. Which view is more plausible depends
certainly on the underlying structure and is purely an empirical matter left for future research. We argue,
however, that this fact provides a nice discriminating factor when one examines what forces are more likely
to be at work in each specific case.
9

Although it is straightforward to see that an entry improves social welfare in symmetric Cournot models,

this does not necessarily hold when the firms are asymmetric as in this case. See Lahiri and Ono (1988) for
this point.

10

is also consumer-benefiting (see Proposition 6). All in all, these facts suggest that HHI may
be an inappropriate welfare index under certain conditions, as has been well recognized by
now.10 The current setup provides yet another example of this assertion.
Finally, we briefly discuss the impact of market competition on the industry-wide rateof innovation. The question we ask here is whether market competition spurs or inhibits
innovations in our setup. To this end, suppose that we measure the industry-wide rate ofinnovation by the (effective) total investment M :M ≡ γx21 + γ

X

x2i .

(11)

i6=1

Figure 4 provides some numerical examples of the relationship between M and n. As thefigure indicates, almost anything goes in our setup, and no clear prediction can hence bemade from this. First, if the dispersion in the ex ante marginal costs is small and zL > zLx ,the low-cost firm’s investment decreases with n, and the total investment is more likely todecrease (see two examples on the left-hand side of Figure 4). On the contrary, when thedispersion is large, the low-cost firm invests more as n increases, even to the extent that it
more than offset a decrease in the total investment of the high-cost firms. As a consequence,
the total investment is more likely to be increasing in n (see two examples on the right-handside). If the dispersion is in some intermediate range, the total investment is non-monotonewith respect to n (see examples at the middle). The last case where the dispersion falls intosome intermediate range is perhaps most interesting, as recent evidence seems to suggestthat the relationship between market competition and innovation is inverted U-shape, e.g.,
Aghion and Griffith (2005).11[Figure 4 here]
The literature examining the relationship between market competition and innovation isvery large and diverse, as it is certainly an old issue which have attracted attention of many
10

This has been discussed in many contexts. See, for instance, Daughety (1990), Etro (2007) and Davidson

and Mukherjee (2007).
11

For theoretical analyses on the relationship between competition and innovation, see, e.g., Vives (2008)

and Zhou (2009).

11

economists, at the very least from the days of Schumpeter, and many models have been
proposed to account for observed patterns of the relationship between market competition
and innovation, e.g., Aghion et al. (2005). We thus do not intend to make too much out of
this, because we only analyze a very specific industry structure. If there is anything we caninsist on this, though, at least this much is certain: the distribution of (initial) productivity
matters, even in a simple Cournot framework like ours. This is an insight which, in our view,has not received enough attention, and it is of some interest to approach this issue from thisperspective, both theoretically and empirically.

2.5

The case of free entry

While our analysis takes the number of (high-cost) firms as exogenous, we can easily extend
our model to incorporate free entry by high-cost firms. Suppose that firms enter the market
at their own discretion by incurring some fixed entry cost. More precisely, consider thefollowing three-stage game: 1. potential followers decide whether to enter the market; 2.
each firm invests in R&D; and 3. each firm engages in Cournot competition. Let F denotethe fixed cost that a new entrant must incur, which effectively determines the equilibrium
number of firms. One can then easily see that a decrease in the entry cost, which typicallyintensifies market competition, can raise the low-cost firm’s profit in the current setting.12
This fact yields a critical insight, as dominant firms in an industry may have an incentive tolower, rather than raise, the entry barrier faced by which minor competitors, e.g., via partial
disclosure of critical know-how. We will explore more on this point in the next section.

3

Open knowledge disclosure: the Ford story

In the previous sections, we have analyzed a simple Cournot model with strategic R&D
investments when the firms are inherently asymmetric. The most important message here is12

On the other hand, the situation would become more complicated, and perhaps more intriguing, witha slight change in the timing structure. For instance, suppose that there is only one low-cost firm to begin
with and the low-cost firm has an opportunity to invest in R&D prior to the entry of potential followers, asconsidered in Etro (2004, 2006, 2008). This context require a whole new analysis, as a leader now has anincentive to make aggressive investments strategically to deter the entry of followers. For the discussion of
R&D competition in Stackelberg settings, see also Ino and Kawamori (2009).

12

that firms with more advanced technologies may benefit from having more minor competitors.
We argue that an implication that this leads to is rather far-reaching, because those dominantfirms actually have an incentive to help, rather than harm, minor competitors so that they
can remain just sufficiently competitive to stay in the market. In this section, we focus on
this implication of the model by relating it to a practice known as open knowledge disclosureand especially the case of Ford back at the turn of the 20th century.
To discuss this issue, let us start with the following question: why are some firms moreproductive than others? A relatively straightforward way to answer this question is that if
there is any sure way to gain market power, it is to make new innovations over the existing
ways of production and commercialization. In fact, innovations, in a broad sense, are thetypical and sometimes the only source of competitive edges that a firm can gain over its
existing or potential competitors. For instance, a firm may drive competitors out of themarket if it can attain a level of efficiency that no one can catch up to. New ideas are also
indispensable to invent a unique, differentiated, product that cannot easily be imitated. The
problem, as it has been clearly recognized, is that although innovative ideas are surely hard
to come by, they are very easy to copy once they are created: in fact, most ideas can becopied at almost no cost. It is hence critical for innovating firms to establish and protect theirinnovative ideas, provided that they can benefit from being in less competitive environments.
In reality, though, firms do not seem overly concerned about keeping “secrets” to themselves – at least not always. For instance, it is often suggested that a large fraction ofpatentable innovations are not patented (Mansfield, 1986).13 Firms are not simply recklesswith their secrets; they often go beyond just that as they intentionally and freely disclose
what appears to be critical knowledge, even to their direct competitors. Informal know-how
trading between competitors is very active, often though informal networks of process engineers (von Hippel, 1988). Employees frequently give technical information to colleagues inother firms, including direct competitors (Schrader, 1991). All of these seem to suggest thatfirms do not protect their innovations as carefully as the theory predicts.
Of course, some fraction of know-how trading occurs in a closed setting – the practice13

A typical view on this is that patents are not always the best way to protect their ideas. This might bedue to the limited power of Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Anton and Yao (2004) focus on this aspect.

13

often referred to as closed knowledge disclosure.14 In this case, some reciprocal agreements,
either explicitly or implicitly, can in principle be made between the giver and the recipients,
barring many difficulties associated with trading ideas.15 In many instances, though, firms
not just freely but also publicly give away critical knowledge through open channels such as
publications in scientific journals, presentation in conferences or more informal communication – a practice often referred to as open knowledge disclosure.16 This practice is highly
puzzling because, when a firm makes its critical knowledge publicly accessible, it inevitably
loses some, if not all, control over the diffusion of the know-how. Once the know-how becomes publicly available, it is virtually impossible for the disclosing firm to take it back or
to make any profit from it. No future exchange of favors can be expected either because it isnearly impossible to identify the beneficiaries of the know-how when it is disclosed via open
channels.
One story stands out in this respect. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ford was
the low-cost automobile producer which had attained an unprecedented level of efficiency
with radically new technologies. The pace of growth was astonishing, especially considering
the fact that the entire industry had also been growing at a rapid pace. Ford’s share of all
automobile production grew from 9.4% in 1908 to 48% in 1914.17 In its main filed of competition, i.e., the cheap car filed, Ford’s share was 96%, practically making it a monopolist. The
figures suggest Ford’s incredible presence in the industry, given that the industry was not
as concentrated as it is today.18 There were certainly many factors that had contributed to
14

There is a scope for know-how trading especially if the industry profit increases with the number offirms. In this case, the concerned parties could reach an agreement if they can somehow manage to find away to appropriately divide the surplus (perhaps through some explicit contracts).
15

Trading an idea is difficult especially when its quality is uncertain: a recipient must see the idea toevaluate the quality but, once the idea is observed, there is no reason to buy it. Partial disclosure may be
optimal in a situation like this. See Anton and Yao (2004) for this.
16

A seminal work on open knowledge disclosure is Allen (1983) who argues that many new production

technologies have been developed by a process called “collective invention.” See Pénin (2007) for further
evidence on open knowledge disclosure. Creane and Konishi (2009) argue that technology transfers throughjoint production can be beneficial for the technologically advanced firm because that may deter entry or
predate on other rival firms.
17

All figures are taken from Nevins (1954).

18

At the time, the number of manufacturers exceeded well above one hundred.

14Ford’s success, but the main source of its competitive edges was undoubtedly its production
efficiency made possible by several innovations and inventions such as the moving assemblyline system and Henry Ford’s scientific management (or so-called “Fordism”): in 1914, Ford,
only with 13,000 employees, manufactured 260,720 while all of the other companies, with
66,350 employees combined, manufactured mere 286,770. There was virtually no competition; Ford was simply too good. Surprisingly, though, Ford had no intention of “hiding its
secrets.” Nevins (1954, p.508) notes:
Engineers came from all over America and Europe to study this achievementin efficiently standardized and specialized production. Nothing was concealed.
Indeed, Henry Ford and his associates this year cooperated with the editors ofEngineering in laying before the world, in the technically detailed and richly
illustrated pages of Arnold and Faurote’s Ford Methods and the Ford Shops, ...
It is hard to believe that Ford expected something in return from those fringe competitors
which seemed to have nothing worthwhile to offer at the time. Why did Ford give away its
critical knowledge so generously? Our model provides a partial answer to this and, more
broadly, a sensible reason for open knowledge disclosure: there is a channel through which
the innovating firm can benefit from disseminating its innovative ideas publicly. The Ford
story fits our description particularly well for two reasons: (i) endogenous cost reduction –a driving force of our model – is evidently an important factor in the automobile industry;(ii) Ford possessed apparently superior technologies and cost advantages. In a situation
like this, market competition tends to make a low-cost firm even more efficient, and hence
eliminating high-cost competitors was not necessarily in its best interest. When there are
more high-cost competitors, competition among them becomes severer and that discourages
them. High-cost competitors make less investment and, consequently, become less efficient,which actually works for the low-cost firm. According to this logic, Ford had every reason
to help, rather than harm, high-cost competitors so that they can remain (just sufficiently)
competitive in the market.

15

4

Conclusion

In this paper, we revisit a fundamental question regarding the nature of market competition:
does intense market competition always make firms worse off? We identify a situation underwhich the widely accepted view that intense market competition decreases firm profit fails toascertain itself. In a market consisting of inherently asymmetric firms, firms with advanced
technologies can in fact benefit from having more (high-cost) competitors when endogenous
cost reduction is sufficiently important. Our model also implies that in some cases, there is areason for low-cost firms to help, rather than harm, high-cost competitors, just for their own
sake (even without any spillover or network effects). This implication of the model provides
a plausible explanation for open knowledge disclosure and especially Ford’s strategy at the
beginning of the 20th century.
It is our view that the present analysis provides only a first step to better understandthe nature of market competition in asymmetric oligopoly, and hence that there are several
avenues to extend the current analysis. First, our results should hold even when the firms are
ex ante asymmetric in more broad senses. More specifically, although the initial efficiency isdefined only in terms of the ex ante marginal cost of production, a similar conclusion holds
when it is defined, for instance, in terms of the efficiency of cost reduction, (measured by γ inthe model). Second, for most of the analysis, we restrict our attention to a particular industry
structure – one low-cost firm and n − 1 equally inefficient high-cost firms – to make ourpoints in a relatively clear manner, but the model’s implications are certainly not restricted
to this structure. Our main contention is rather that the distribution of initial productivity
matters, for the incentive for R&D investments and the resulting equilibrium profits. We
believe that this is an important insight especially when we examine the relationship between
market competition and innovation, and it is of some interest to pursue this aspect, boththeoretically and empirically, in future.

16

Appendix: proofs
Proof of Proposition 1 (i) From (4) we have∂xE
γ[n2 (n2 + 1) − 3n2 (n + 1)2 γ + (n + 1)3 (3n − 1)γ 2 ]zH
1=∂n((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2γ[(n2 − 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2 + n(2n − (n + 1)2 (n + 2)γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 )zL ], (12)−((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2which is positive if and only ifzL <(n2 − 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2n(2n − (n + 2)(n + 1)2 γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 )[n2 (1 + n2 ) − 3n2 (n + 1)2 γ + (3n − 1)(n + 1)3 γ 2 ]zH≡ zLx . (13)+n(2n − (n + 2)(n + 1)2 γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 )For the nonemptiness, see the Proof of Proposition 5.
(ii) From (4) we have∂xE[(n − 1)(n + 1)3 γ 2 − n2 (n + 1)2 γ + n2 ]zL + (n2 − 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2
i
= −γ
∂n
((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2[2(n − 1)(n + 1)3 γ 2 − n(n + 1)2 (3n − 2)γ + n4 ]zH−, i 6= 1, (14)((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2which is maximized at zL = z L (because ∂xEi /∂n, i 6= 1, is strictly decreasing in zL ).
Evaluating the partial derivative at this value, we haven(1 − zH )∂xEi=−
< 0, i 6= 1.
∂n zL =z(n + 1)((n + 1)γ − n)((n + 1)2 γ − n)

(15)

L

Therefore, under the maintained assumptions, xEi , i 6= 1, is strictly decreasing in n as longas zL > z L and xE
i > 0.

Q.E.D.

Proof of Proposition 2 Differentiating zLx with respect to γ, we have∂zLx−(1 − zH )(n − 1)(n + 1)2 ((γ − 1)n + γ)((n + 1)2 (3n − 2)γ − n(n2 + 3n − 2))=. (16)∂γn(2n − (n + 2)(n + 1)2 γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 )2Note that (n + 1)2 (3n − 2)γ − n(n2 + 3n − 2) > 0 for any γ > 1 because, when γ = 1,
(n + 1)2 (3n − 2)γ − n(n2 + 3n − 2) = 2n3 + n2 + n − 2 > 0.

17

(17)

This means that the numerator of ∂zLx /∂γ is always negative.

Q.E.D.

Proof of Proposition 3 (i) Given the equilibrium investment levels, we can obtain the
net profits as follows:γ((n + 1)2 γ − n2 )((n + 1)γ − n + (n2 − 1)γzH − n((n + 1)γ − 1)zL )2,((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2(18)γ((n + 1)2 γ − n2 )((n + 1)γ − n + (n + 1)γzL − (2(n + 1)γ − n)zH )2, i 6= 1.
((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2

(19)

ΠE
1 =
ΠE
i =

From (18), we have∂ΠE1= 2γ 2 ((n + 1)γ − n + (n2 − 1)γzH − n((n + 1)γ − 1)zL )×∂n
(n + 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − (n2 − n + 1))((n + 1)γ − n)3 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)3[n2 (1 − n) + n3 (n + 1)2 γ − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + 1)γ 2 + (n + 1)5 γ 3 ]zL−((n + 1)γ − n)3 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)3[n3 (1 + n2 ) − n(n + 1)2 (4n2 − n + 2)γ + (n + 1)3 (5n2 + n + 2)γ 2 − 2(n + 1)5 γ 3 ]zH−,((n + 1)γ − n)3 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)3(20)
which is positive if and only if
zL < −(n + 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − (n2 − n + 1))[n2 (1 − n) + n3 (n + 1)2 γ − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + 1)γ 2 + (n + 1)5 γ 3 ][−n3 (n2 + 1) + n(n + 1)2 (4n2 − n + 2)γ]zH+[n2 (1 − n) + n3 (n + 1)2 γ − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + 1)γ 2 + (n + 1)5 γ 3 ][−(n + 1)3 (5n2 + n + 2)γ 2 + 2(n + 1)5 γ 3 ]zH
+ 2
≡ zLP
[n (1 − n) + n3 (n + 1)2 γ − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + 1)γ 2 + (n + 1)5 γ 3 ](21)For the nonemptiness, see the Proof of Proposition 5.
(ii) From (19) we have∂ΠEi
= −2γ 2 (γ(n + 1)zL + ((γ − 1)n + γ) − ((2γ − 1)n + 2γ)zH )K(n, γ), i 6= 1,
∂n

(22)

where
[(n + 1)5 γ 3 − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + n + 2)γ 2 + n(n + 1)2 (n2 + 2)γ − n3 ]zL((n + 1)γ − n)3 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)3[2(n + 1)5 γ 3 − (n + 1)3 (5n2 + 2n + 3)γ 2 + n(n + 1)2 (4n2 − n + 4)γ − n2 (n3 + n + 1)]zH−((n + 1)γ − n)3 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)3(n + 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − (n2 − n + 1))+. (23)((n + 1)γ − n)3 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)3
K(n, γ) =18

For any zL ≥ z L , (γ(n + 1)zL + ((γ − 1)n + γ) − ((2γ − 1)n + 2γ)zH ) is nonnegative. We
can thus prove the proposition if K(n, γ) > 0. Note that since K(n, γ) is increasing in zL , itsuffices to show this at zL = z L :(1 − zH )((γ − 1)n2 + 2γn + γ)
> 0.
(n + 1)γ((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2This shows that for any n, ΠEi , i 6= 1, is decreasing in n.

Q.E.D.

Proof of Proposition 4 Differentiating zLP with respect to γ, we have∂zLP
(1 − zH )n(n + 1)2 ((γ − 1)n + γ)
= J(n, γ) 2,
∂γ[n (1 − n) + n3 (n + 1)2 γ − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + 1)γ 2 + (n + 1)5 γ 3 ]2

(24)

where
J(n, γ) ≡ n(n5 − 3n3 + 5n2 − 3n + 2) − (n + 1)2 (3n4 − 3n3 + 2n2 + n + 2)γ+ (n + 1)4 (3n2 − 3n + 4)γ 2 − (n + 1)6 γ 3 .

(25)Note that ∂zLP /∂γ < 0 if and only if J(n, γ) < 0. To show this, we first obtain∂J(n, γ)∂γ

= −(n + 1)2 (3n4 − 3n3 + 2n2 + n + 2)+2(n + 1)4 (3n2 − 3n + 4)γ − 3(n + 1)6 γ 2 ,∂ 2 J(n, γ)∂γ 2
3∂ J(n, γ)∂γ 3= 2(n + 1)4 (3n2 − 3n + 4) − 6(n + 1)6 γ,= −6(n + 1)6 < 0.

Substituting γ = 1 into J(n, γ), ∂J(n, γ)/∂γ, and ∂ 2 J(n, γ)/∂γ 2 yield
J(n, 1) = −(7n4 + 7n3 + 9n2 − 4n − 1) < 0,∂J(n, γ)= −3(n + 1)2 (n3 + 6n2 + n − 1) < 0,∂γγ=1
∂ 2 J(n, γ)= −2(n + 1)4 (9n − 1) < 0,∂γ 2γ=1which assures that J(n, γ) is always negative.

19

Q.E.D.

Proof of Proposition 5 With some algebra we obtainzLx − zLP=

zLP − z L =(1 − zH )(n + 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − (n2 + 1))> 0,n[2n − (n + 2)(n + 1)2 γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 ]Γ
(1 − zH )n(n − 1)((n + 1)γ − n)((n + 1)2 γ − n)> 0,γ(n + 1)Γwhere Γ ≡ [n2 (1 − n) + n3 (n + 1)2 γ − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + 1)γ 2 + (n + 1)5 γ 3 ],for any γ ≥ 1 and n > 1, which proves the proposition (and also the nonemptiness of Z x
and Z P .

Q.E.D.

Proof of Proposition 6 Differentiating pE with respect to n, we haveγ[(n + 1)2 (1 − 2zH + zL )γ − (1 − zH )n2 + (zH − zL )]
∂pE
=−
.
∂n
((n + 1)2 γ − n)2(26)

For zL ≥ z L , the partial derivative is maximized at zL = z L . Substituting zL = z L into thepartial derivative, we have∂pE
1 − zH< 0.
=−∂n zL =z(n + 1)((n + 1)2 γ − n)

(27)

L

Therefore, pE is decreasing in n.

Q.E.D.

Proof of Proposition 7 (i) From (10), we have∂QE((n + 1)γ − n)(2(n + 1)2 γ − (n2 + 1))
−1
=γ×
∂n
((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2[n2 (n2 + 1) − n(n + 1)(5n2 + n + 4)γ + (n + 1)2 (7n2 + 6n + 3)γ 2 − 4(n + 1)4 γ 3 ]zH+((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)22(n + 1)γ[n(n − n + 2) − 2(n + 1)(n2 + n + 1)γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 ]zL. (28)+((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2This is positive if and only ifzL <((n + 1)γ − n)2 (2(n + 1)2 γ − (n2 + 1))(n + 1)γ[n(n2 − n + 2) − 2(n + 1)(n2 + n + 1)γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 ][−n2 (n2 + 1) + n(n + 1)(5n2 + n + 4)γ]zH+(n + 1)γ[n(n2 − n + 2) − 2(n + 1)(n2 + n + 1)γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 ][−(n + 1)2 (7n2 + 6n + 3)γ 2 + 4(n + 1)4 γ 3 ]zH≡ zLQ . (29)+(n + 1)γ[n(n2 − n + 2) − 2(n + 1)(n2 + n + 1)γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 ]20For the nonemptiness, see the next part (ii) of this proof.
(ii) With some algebra we obtainzLx − zLQ =zLQ − zLP=

2(1 − zH )((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − (n2 + 1))> 0,
n(n + 1)γ[2n − (n + 2)(n + 1)2 γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 ]H 0
(1 − zH )(n − 1)((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − (n2 + 1))> 0,
γ(n + 1)HH 0
where H = [n2 (1 − n) + n3 (n + 1)2 γ − (n + 1)3 (2n2 + 1)γ 2 + (n + 1)5 γ 3 ],H 0 ≡ [n(n2 − n + 2) − 2(n + 1)(n2 + n + 1)γ + 2(n + 1)3 γ 2 ],which proves the proposition.

Q.E.D.

21

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24

zL
0.5

zL
0.5
zxL

0.45
0.4

0.45

z
L

0.35

0.35

0.3

0.3

0.25

0.25
5

10

15

zxL

0.4

20

25

30

n

z
L
5

(γ = 6/5, zH = 0.5)

10

15

20

25

30

(γ = 9/5, zH = 0.5)

Figure 1: The range of zL for which an entry stimulates the low-cost firm’s
investment (∂x1 /∂n > 0).

25

n

zL
0.5

zL
0.5

0.45

0.45

zPL

0.4

0.4

z
L

0.35

0.35

0.3

0.3

zPL

0.25

0.25

z
L

5

10

15

20

25

30

n

5

(γ = 6/5, zH = 0.5)

10

15

20

25

30

(γ = 9/5, zH = 0.5)

Figure 2: The range of zL for which an entry raises the low-cost firm’s profit(∂Π1 /∂n > 0).

26

n

ze

ze

0.55

0.55

0.54

0.54

0.53

0.53

0.52

0.52

0.51

0.51

0.51

0.52

0.53

0.54

z
0.55 A

0.51(a) n = 8

0.52

0.53

0.54

z
0.55 A(b) n = 10
(a = 1, zL = 0.5, γ = 1)

Figure 3: The condition
under which an entry raises the low-cost firm’s profit.
Pn(zA = i=2 zi /(n − 1), ze : the entrant’s ex ante marginal cost)

27

M
0.008

M
0.008

M
0.008

0.007

0.007

0.007

0.006

0.006

0.006

0.005

0.005

0.005

0.004

0.004

0.004

0.003

0.003

0.003

0.002
5

10

15

20

25

30

n

(zL = 0.4, γ = 10)

0.002
5

10

15

20

25

30

n

(zL = 3/10, γ = 10)

0.002
5

M

M

M

0.035
0.03250.03
0.02750.025
0.02250.02
0.01750.035
0.03250.03
0.02750.025
0.02250.02
0.0175

10

15

20

25

(zL = 0.45, γ = 3/2)

30

n

5

10

15

20

25

15

30

(zL = 0.428, γ = 3/2)

n

5

10

15

25

30

20

25

30

(zL = 0.42, γ = 3/2)

Figure 4: The relationship between M and n (zH = 0.5).

28

20

n

(zL = 0.25, γ = 10)0.035
0.03250.03
0.02750.025
0.02250.02
0.0175510nAppendix (not for publication)
The profit of firm i is (see (6)),πi (n, z; zi ) =(n + 1)2
γ2
−γ
n2



2
(xE
i (n, z; zi )) .

It is then straightforward to obtain
π1 (n, z; zL ) =γ((n + 1)2 γ − n2 )×((n + 1)γ − n)2 ((n + 1)2 γ − n)22nX(n + 1)γ − n + (n + 1)γzj − n((n + 1)γ − 1)zL  ,j6=1

π1 (n + 1, z0 ; zL ) =γ((n + 2)2 γ − (n + 1)2 )×((n + 2)γ − (n + 1))2 ((n + 2)2 γ − (n + 1))2
2nX
(n + 2)γ − (n + 1) + (n + 2)γ(ze +zj ) − (n + 1)((n + 2)γ − 1)zL  ,j6=1

where z0 = (z, ze ). The entrant with ze increases the low-cost firm’s profit if π1 (n+1, z0 ; zL ) >π1 (n, z; zL ). The inequality is satisfied if and only if
Lze > − ((n + 1)γ − n)((n + 2)γ − (n + 1))(((n + 1)2 γ − n)H − ((n + 2)2 γ − (n + 1)))− γ[(n + 2)((n + 1)γ − n)((n + 1)2 γ − n)H
2− (n + 1)((n + 2)γ − (n + 1))((n + 2) γ − (n + 1))]

n
X

zj

j6=1

+ γ[(n + 1)((n + 1)γ − n)((n + 1)2 γ − n)((n + 2)γ − 1)H− n((n + 2)γ − (n + 1))((n + 2)2 γ − (n + 1))((n + 1)γ − 1)]zL ,
where
H≡

s

(n + 2)2 γ − (n + 1)2(n + 1)2 γ − n2L ≡γ(n + 2)((n + 1)γ − n)((n + 1)2 γ − n)H.
This condition corresponds to the segmented line in Figure 3.

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