Price or quantity setting under uncertain demand and capacity constraints: An examination of the profits

Abstract

This article considers price formation and quantity setting of a capacity-constrained risk-neutral firm facing uncertain demand. It is shown that the optimal price of a price-setting risk-neutral monopolist decreases with demand uncertainty. With a strictly convex demand function expected profits increase with uncertainty for a quantity-setting monopolist whereas expected profits decrease for a price-setting monopolist. Furthermore, similar results on the effect of uncertainty are derived for a differentiated goods industry.