IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jemstr/v32y2023i1p48-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

National pricing with local quality competition

Author

Listed:
  • Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen
  • Bjørn Olav Johansen
  • Odd Rune Straume

Abstract

We study the incentives of national retail chains to adopt national (uniform) prices across local markets that differ in size and competition intensity. In addition to price, the chains may also compete along a quality dimension, and quality is always set locally. We show that absent quality competition, the chains will never use national pricing. However, if quality competition is sufficiently strong there exist equilibria where at least one of the chains adopts national pricing. We also identify cases in which national pricing benefits (harms) all consumers, even in markets where such a pricing strategy leads to higher (lower) prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen & Bjørn Olav Johansen & Odd Rune Straume, 2023. "National pricing with local quality competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 48-74, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:32:y:2023:i:1:p:48-74
    DOI: 10.1111/jems.12494
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jems.12494
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jems.12494?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ching-to Ma & James Burgess, 1993. "Quality competition, welfare, and regulation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 153-173, June.
    2. Brian Adams & Kevin R. Williams, 2019. "Zone Pricing in Retail Oligopoly," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 124-156, February.
    3. Thisse, Jacques-Francois & Vives, Xavier, 1988. "On the Strategic Choice of Spatial Price Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 122-137, March.
    4. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    5. Armstrong, Mark & Vickers, John, 2001. "Competitive Price Discrimination," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(4), pages 579-605, Winter.
    6. Stefano DellaVigna & Matthew Gentzkow, 2019. "Uniform Pricing in U.S. Retail Chains," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 2011-2084.
    7. Yang Li & Brett R. Gordon & Oded Netzer, 2018. "An Empirical Study of National vs. Local Pricing by Chain Stores Under Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(5), pages 812-837, September.
    8. Bergantino, Angela S. & Capozza, Claudia & Intini, Mario, 2020. "Empirical investigation of retail fuel pricing: The impact of spatial interaction, competition and territorial factors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Ralph A. Winter, 1997. "Colluding on Relative Prices," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(2), pages 359-371, Summer.
    10. Gravelle, Hugh, 1999. "Capitation contracts: access and quality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 315-340, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Horizontal mergers and product quality," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1063-1103, November.
    2. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    3. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2013. "Hospital Mergers: A Spatial Competition Approach," NIPE Working Papers 04/2013, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    4. Ziad R. Ghandour, 2019. "Public-Private Competition in Regulated Markets," NIPE Working Papers 02/2019, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    5. Cellini, Roberto & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2018. "A dynamic model of quality competition with endogenous prices," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 190-206.
    6. Bryan Bollinger & Steven E. Sexton, 2023. "Local excise taxes, sticky prices, and spillovers: evidence from Berkeley’s soda tax," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 281-331, June.
    7. Brekke, Kurt Richard & Siciliani, Luigi, 2011. "Quality competition with profit constraints: Do non-profit firms provide higher quality than for-profit firms?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8284, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    9. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2018. "Can Competition Reduce Quality?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 174(3), pages 421-447, September.
    10. Ghandour, Ziad & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2022. "Investment and quality competition in healthcare markets," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Yang Li & Brett R. Gordon & Oded Netzer, 2018. "An Empirical Study of National vs. Local Pricing by Chain Stores Under Competition," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(5), pages 812-837, September.
    12. Peran van Reeven & Enrico Pennings, 2016. "On the relation between multimarket contact and service quality: Mutual forbearance or network coordination?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(10), pages 2121-2134, October.
    13. Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2014. "Price and Quality Competition in Spatial Markets. The Case of Camping Sites," WIFO Working Papers 466, WIFO.
    14. Diego Aparicio & Zachary Metzman & Roberto Rigobon, 2024. "The pricing strategies of online grocery retailers," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-21, March.
    15. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Quality competition with profit constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 642-659.
    16. repec:nip:nipewp:08/2015 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Juan Pablo Atal & José Ignacio Cuesta & Felipe González & Cristóbal Otero, 2024. "The Economics of the Public Option: Evidence from Local Pharmaceutical Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(3), pages 615-644, March.
    18. Gu, Yiquan & Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2022. "Consumer salience and quality provision in (un)regulated public service markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    19. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Menicucci, Domenico, 2009. "Bundling and Competition for Slots: On the Portfolio Effects of Bundling," IDEI Working Papers 574, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Jul 2011.
    20. Marcus Asplund & Rickard Eriksson & Niklas Strand, 2008. "Price Discrimination In Oligopoly: Evidence From Regional Newspapers," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 333-346, June.
    21. Brekke, Kurt R. & Nuscheler, Robert & Straume, Odd Rune, 2007. "Gatekeeping in health care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 149-170, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:32:y:2023:i:1:p:48-74. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/journals/JEMS/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.