Static and dynamic best-response potential functions for the non-linear Cournot game

We show that the Cournot oligopoly game with non-linear market demand can be reformulated as a best-response potential game where the best-response potential function is linear-quadratic in the special case where marginal cost is normalized to zero. We also propose a new approach to show that the open-loop differential game with Ramsey dynamics admits a best-response Hamiltonian potential corresponding to the sum of the best-response potential function of the static game plus the scalar product of transition functions multiplied by the fictitious costate variables. Unlike the original differential game, its best-response representation yields the map of the instantaneous best reply functions.