IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v146y2018icp161-179.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price competition on graphs

Author

Listed:
  • Heijnen, Pim
  • Soetevent, Adriaan R.

Abstract

This paper extends Hotelling's model of price competition with quadratic transportation costs from a line to graphs. We derive an algorithm to calculate firm-level demand for any given graph, conditional on prices and firm locations. These graph models of price competition may lead to spatial discontinuities in firm-level demand. We show that the existence result of d’Aspremont et al. (1979) does not extend to graphs that cannot be reduced to a line or circle.

Suggested Citation

  • Heijnen, Pim & Soetevent, Adriaan R., 2018. "Price competition on graphs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 161-179.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:146:y:2018:i:c:p:161-179
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2017.12.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268117303529
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.12.011?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bollobas, Bela & Stern, Nicholas, 1972. "The optimal structure of market areas," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 174-179, April.
    2. Varian, Hal R, 1980. "A Model of Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 651-659, September.
    3. Michael Noel, 2009. "Do retail gasoline prices respond asymmetrically to cost shocks? The influence of Edgeworth Cycles," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 582-595, September.
    4. Matthew S. Lewis, 2011. "Asymmetric Price Adjustment and Consumer Search: An Examination of the Retail Gasoline Market," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 409-449, June.
    5. Michael D. Noel, 2007. "Edgeworth Price Cycles: Evidence From The Toronto Retail Gasoline Market," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 69-92, March.
    6. Bloch, Francis & Quérou, Nicolas, 2013. "Pricing in social networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 243-261.
    7. Irmen, Andreas & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 1998. "Competition in Multi-characteristics Spaces: Hotelling Was Almost Right," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 76-102, January.
    8. von Ungern-Sternberg, Thomas, 1991. "Monopolistic Competition on the Pyramid," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 355-368, June.
    9. Michael D. Noel, 2007. "Edgeworth Price Cycles, Cost-Based Pricing, and Sticky Pricing in Retail Gasoline Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 324-334, May.
    10. Nicholas Economides, 1986. "Nash Equilibrium in Duopoly with Products Defined by Two Characteristics," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(3), pages 431-439, Autumn.
    11. Jean-Francois Houde, 2012. "Spatial Differentiation and Vertical Mergers in Retail Markets for Gasoline," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 2147-2182, August.
    12. Eaton, B Curtis & Lipsey, Richard G, 1976. "The Non-Uniqueness of Equilibrium in the Loschian Location Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(1), pages 71-93, March.
    13. Buechel, Berno & Roehl, Nils, 2015. "Robust equilibria in location games," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(2), pages 505-517.
    14. Gaëtan Fournier & Marco Scarsini, 2014. "Hotelling Games on Networks: Efficiency of Equilibria," Post-Print halshs-00983085, HAL.
    15. Caplin, Andrew & Nalebuff, Barry, 1991. "Aggregation and Imperfect Competition: On the Existence of Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(1), pages 25-59, January.
    16. Picone, Gabriel A. & Ridley, David B. & Zandbergen, Paul A., 2009. "Distance decreases with differentiation: Strategic agglomeration by retailers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 463-473, May.
    17. Matthew Lewis & Michael Noel, 2011. "The Speed of Gasoline Price Response in Markets with and without Edgeworth Cycles," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 672-682, May.
    18. Raith, Michael, 1996. "Spatial retail markets with commuting consumers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 447-463, June.
    19. JASKOLD GABSZEWICZ, Jean & THISSE, Jacques-François, 1986. "Spatial competition and the location of firms," LIDAM Reprints CORE 713, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    20. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 1988. "A Theory of Dynamic Oligopoly, II: Price Competition, Kinked Demand Curves, and Edgeworth Cycles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(3), pages 571-599, May.
    21. Holahan, William L & Schuler, Richard E, 1981. "The Welfare Effects of Market Shapes in the Loschian Location Model: Squares vs. Hexagons [The Non-Uniqueness of Equilibrium in the Loschian Location Model]," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 738-746, September.
    22. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    23. Partha Dasgupta & Eric Maskin, 1986. "The Existence of Equilibrium in Discontinuous Economic Games, I: Theory," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(1), pages 1-26.
    24. d'Aspremont, C & Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold & Thisse, J-F, 1979. "On Hotelling's "Stability in Competition"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1145-1150, September.
    25. Partha Dasgupta & Eric Maskin, 1986. "The Existence of Equilibrium in Discontinuous Economic Games, II: Applications," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 53(1), pages 27-41.
    26. Economides, Nicholas, 1986. "Minimal and maximal product differentiation in Hotelling's duopoly," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 67-71.
    27. Edwin S. Mills & Michael R. Lav, 1964. "A Model of Market Areas with Free Entry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72, pages 278-278.
    28. Lance J. Bachmeier & James M. Griffin, 2003. "New Evidence on Asymmetric Gasoline Price Responses," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(3), pages 772-776, August.
    29. Anderson, Simon P. & Goeree, Jacob K. & Ramer, Roald, 1997. "Location, Location, Location," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 102-127, November.
    30. Castanias, Rick & Johnson, Herb, 1993. "Gas Wars: Retail Gasoline Fluctuations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(1), pages 171-174, February.
    31. Nicolas de Roos & Hajime Katayama, 2013. "Gasoline Price Cycles Under Discrete Time Pricing," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(285), pages 175-193, June.
    32. Francis Bloch & Nicolas Quérou, 2008. "Pricing in networks," Working Papers hal-00356356, HAL.
    33. Zhongmin Wang, 2009. "(Mixed) Strategy in Oligopoly Pricing: Evidence from Gasoline Price Cycles Before and Under a Timing Regulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(6), pages 987-1030, December.
    34. Eckert, Andrew, 2003. "Retail price cycles and the presence of small firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 151-170, February.
    35. Greenhut, M L & Hwang, M J & Ohta, H, 1976. "An Empirical Evaluation of the Equilibrium Size and Shape of Market Areas," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 17(1), pages 172-190, February.
    36. Michael D. Noel, 2011. "Edgeworth price cycles," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics,, Palgrave Macmillan.
    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. Hinloopen, Jeroen & Müller, Wieland & Normann, Hans-Theo, 2014. "Output commitment through product bundling: Experimental evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 164-180.
    2. Hinloopen, Jeroen & Martin, Stephen, 2017. "Costly location in Hotelling duopoly," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 118-128.
    3. Fernando Vega-Redondo & Paolo Pin & Diego Ubfal & Cristiana Benedetti-Fasil & Charles Brummitt & Gaia Rubera & Dirk Hovy & Tommaso Fornaciari, 2019. "Peer Networks and Entrepreneurship: a Pan-African RCT," Working Papers 648, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    4. Gaëtan Fournier & Marco Scarsini, 2019. "Location Games on Networks: Existence and Efficiency of Equilibria," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 212-235, February.
    5. de Roos, Nicolas, 2012. "Static models of the Edgeworth cycle," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 881-882.
    6. Gaëtan Fournier & Marco Scarsini, 2014. "Hotelling Games on Networks: Efficiency of Equilibria," Post-Print halshs-00983085, HAL.
    7. Arthur Charpentier & Alfred Galichon & Lucas Vernet, 2019. "Optimal transport on large networks a practitioner guide," Working Papers hal-02173210, HAL.
    8. Arthur Charpentier & Alfred Galichon & Lucas Vernet, 2019. "Optimal transport on large networks, a practitioner's guide," Papers 1907.02320, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2019.
    9. Arthur Charpentier & Alfred Galichon & Lucas Vernet, 2019. "Optimal transport on large networks a practitioner guide," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-02173210, HAL.
    10. Dubovik, Andrei, 2018. "Mergers on Networks," MPRA Paper 95458, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Noel, Michael D., 2015. "Do Edgeworth price cycles lead to higher or lower prices?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 81-93.
    2. David P. Byrne, Gordon W. Leslie, and Roger Ware, 2015. "How do Consumers Respond to Gasoline Price Cycles?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    3. Noel, Michael D. & Chu, Lanlan, 2015. "Forecasting gasoline prices in the presence of Edgeworth Price Cycles," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 204-214.
    4. Firgo, Matthias & Pennerstorfer, Dieter & Weiss, Christoph R., 2015. "Centrality and pricing in spatially differentiated markets: The case of gasoline," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 81-90.
    5. Sylvain Benoît & Yannick Lucotte & Sébastien Ringuedé, 2019. "Competition and price stickiness: Evidence from the French retail gasoline market," Working Papers hal-02292332, HAL.
    6. Seaton, Jonathan S. & Waterson, Michael, 2013. "Identifying and characterising price leadership in British supermarkets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 392-403.
    7. Michael D. Noel, 2019. "Calendar synchronization of gasoline price increases," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 355-370, April.
    8. Isakower, Sean & Wang, Zhongmin, 2014. "A comparison of regular price cycles in gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 445-454.
    9. Elliott, Robert & Sun, Puyang & Zhu, Tong, 2020. "Shell shocked: The impact of foreign entry on the gasoline retail market in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Andreoli-Versbach, Patrick & Franck, Jens-Uwe, 2015. "Endogenous price commitment, sticky and leadership pricing: Evidence from the Italian petrol market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 32-48.
    11. Michael Noel, 2009. "Do retail gasoline prices respond asymmetrically to cost shocks? The influence of Edgeworth Cycles," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 582-595, September.
    12. Eibelshäuser, Steffen & Wilhelm, Sascha, 2017. "Markets Take Breaks: Dynamic Price Competition with Opening Hours," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168247, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Paul Zimmerman & John Yun & Christopher Taylor, 2013. "Edgeworth Price Cycles in Gasoline: Evidence from the United States," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 42(3), pages 297-320, May.
    14. Noel, Michael D., 2012. "Edgeworth Price Cycles and intertemporal price discrimination," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 942-954.
    15. Cui, Jian & Yang, Hanfang & Wang, Yifan & Yang, Caili, 2023. "Dynamics of the gas retail market under China's price cap regulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    16. Alex Perez & Juan Sebastián Vélez-Velásquez, 2022. "Price Dispersion and Wholesale Costs Shocks in the Colombian Retail Gasoline Markets," Borradores de Economia 1220, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    17. Arezoo Ghazanfari & Armin Razmjoo, 2022. "The Effect of Market Isolation on Competitive Behavior in Retail Petrol Markets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-33, July.
    18. Wein, Thomas, 2021. "Why abandoning the paradise? Stations incentives to reduce gasoline prices at first," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242362, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Noel, Michael D. & Qiang, Hongjie, 2019. "The role of information in retail gasoline price dispersion," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 173-187.
    20. Beare, Brendan K. & Seo, Juwon, 2014. "Time Irreversible Copula-Based Markov Models," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(5), pages 923-960, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spatial competition; Hotelling; Graphs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    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:eee:jeborg:v:146:y:2018:i:c:p:161-179. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    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.