Does information about competitors' actions increase or decrease competition in experimental oligopoly markets?

This paper investigates the impact the publication of firm-specific data ha s on the competitiveness of experimental oligopoly markets. We compare two treatments: in one, firms are informed about their rivals' actions and prof its. In the other, firms are only given aggregate information about their r ivals' actions (average quantities or prices). We find that more informatio n leads to more competition. In the treatment where aggregate information i s given, we confirm the theoretical result that Bertrand markets are more c ompetitive than Cournot markets. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: L13; C92: C72.