Strategic profit sharing between firms: a primer.

This paper builds a theory of profit sharing between two firms in a duopoly market through which firms seek to increase their profits and, in turn, to limit the competition. We use a general model to show the direct (negative) and indirect (positive) effects of this strategy. We then focus on some oligopolistic models to analyze more deeply and more precisely these two opposite effects in search of the dominant one. We thus show that giving away profits is a rewarding strategy for firms in some (but not all) models of oligopolistic competition.