IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausecp/v47y2008i3p264-271.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competition Can Harm Consumers

Author

Listed:
  • SIMON COWAN
  • XIANGKANG YIN

Abstract

Duopolists selling differentiated products can generate less consumer surplus than a monopoly selling one of the products. In a Hotelling‐type model where a monopoly supplies more than half of potential consumers, but not all, entry by a rival leads to a duopoly price that is higher than the monopoly price. Consumers in aggregate will be made worse off by such entry when the effect of the price increase outweighs the benefit of extra variety. When consumers have continuous demand functions and firms use two‐part tariffs, duopoly can also result in lower aggregate consumer surplus than monopoly.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Cowan & Xiangkang Yin, 2008. "Competition Can Harm Consumers," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 264-271, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecp:v:47:y:2008:i:3:p:264-271
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8454.2008.00347.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8454.2008.00347.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-8454.2008.00347.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1989. "Imperfect information in the product market," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 769-847, Elsevier.
    2. Yin, Xiangkang, 2004. "Two-part tariff competition in duopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 799-820, June.
    3. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    4. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    5. Hinloopen, Jeroen & van Marrewijk, Charles, 1999. "On the limits and possibilities of the principle of minimum differentiation1," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 735-750, July.
    6. Economides, Nicholas, 1984. "The principle of minimum differentiation revisited," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 345-368, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zacharias, Eleftherios, 2009. "Firm entry, product repositioning and welfare," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 1225-1235, November.
    2. Robert A. Ritz, 2018. "Oligopolistic competition and welfare," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume I, chapter 7, pages 181-200, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Choe, Chongwoo & Matsushima, Noriaki & Tremblay, Mark J., 2022. "Behavior-based personalized pricing: When firms can share customer information," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Qiuyu Lu & Noriaki Matsushima, 2023. "Personalized pricing when consumers can purchase multiple items," ISER Discussion Paper 1192, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    5. Emanuele Bacchiega & Elias Carroni & Alessandro Fedele, 2023. "Monopolistic Duopoly," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS101, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    6. Bertoletti, Paolo & Fumagalli, Eileen & Poletti, Clara, 2017. "Price-cost margins and firm size under monopolistic competition: The case of IES preferences," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 653-662.
    7. Cumbul, Eray & Virág, Gábor, 2018. "Multilateral limit pricing in price-setting games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 250-273.

    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. Fleckinger, Pierre & Lafay, Thierry, 2010. "Product flexibility and price competition in Hotelling's duopoly," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 61-68, July.
    2. Kelemen, József, 2020. "Szimultán Hotelling-modell Cobb-Douglas-hasznosságfüggvénnyel [A simultaneous Hotelling model with a Cobb-Douglas utility function]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 14-30.
    3. 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.
    4. Wen-Chung Guo & Fu-Chuan Lai, 2014. "Spatial competition with quadratic transport costs and one online firm," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 52(1), pages 309-324, January.
    5. Kelemen, József, 2017. "Több piacra épülő webáruház térbeli árversenye [Spatial price competition for a web shop built on several markets]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(6), pages 612-629.
    6. Eveline Leeuwen & Mark Lijesen, 2016. "Agents playing Hotelling’s game: an agent-based approach to a game theoretic model," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(2), pages 393-411, November.
    7. Mérel Pierre R & Sexton Richard J., 2010. "Kinked-Demand Equilibria and Weak Duopoly in the Hotelling Model of Horizontal Differentiation," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, April.
    8. Elizalde, Javier, 2013. "Competition in multiple characteristics: An empirical test of location equilibrium," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 938-950.
    9. Jean J. Gabszewicz & Jacques-François Thisse, 2000. "Microeconomic theories of imperfect competition," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 37(1), pages 47-99.
    10. Jorge Fernández-Ruiz, 2020. "Mixed duopoly in a Hotelling framework with cubic transportation costs," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 133-149, August.
    11. Emanuele Bacchiega & Elias Carroni & Alessandro Fedele, 2023. "Monopolistic Duopoly," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS101, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    12. Youping Li & Jie Shuai, 2017. "Vertical separation with location–price competition," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 255-266, July.
    13. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, January.
    14. Mark Lijesen, 2013. "Hotelling’s webshop," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 193-200, June.
    15. Dragone, Davide & Lambertini, Luca, 2020. "Equilibrium existence in the Hotelling model with convex production costs," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    16. BÃ¥rd Harstad, 2007. "Organizational Form and the Market for Talent," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(3), pages 581-611.
    17. Alain Egli, 2005. "Hotelling's Beach with Linear and Quadratic Transportation Costs: Existence of Pure Strategy Equilibria," Diskussionsschriften dp0509, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    18. Boone, J., 2004. "Balance of Power," Other publications TiSEM d3f8cd4b-eaf0-4c1c-aed4-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Allen C. Goodman & Miron Stano, 2000. "Hmos and Health Externalities: A Local Public Good Perspective," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(3), pages 247-269, May.
    20. Kopányi, Dávid, 2017. "The coexistence of stable equilibria under least squares learning," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 277-300.

    More about this item

    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:ausecp:v:47:y:2008:i:3:p:264-271. 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.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0004-900X .

    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.