Dynamic monopolistic competition with sluggish adjustment of entry and exit

Abstract

We study a steady state of a free entry oligopoly with differentiated goods, that is, a monopolistic competition, with sluggish adjustment of entry and exit of firms under general demand and cost functions by a differential game approach. Mainly we show that the number of firms at the steady state in the open-loop solution of monopolistic competition is smaller than that at the static equilibrium of monopolistic competition, and that the number of firms at the steady state of the memoryless closed-loop monopolistic competition is larger than that at the steady state of the open-loop monopolistic competition, and may be larger than the number of firms at the static equilibrium.