Titel: Competition Policy towards the Disclosure of Acquired Demand Information in Duopoly.
Abstract:
I study how the acquisition and disclosure of demand information by duopolists affects the expected consumer surplus. I compare the surplus under information sharing with the surplus under concealment. If firms compete in quantities (Cournot competition), then information sharing does not maximize the consumer surplus, since the firms acquire less information when they share information. An antitrust authority who considers prohibition of information sharing to maximize the social welfare trades off the welfare loss of less information acquisition against the gain of avoiding duplication of efforts. Further, some extensions are considered.