IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/mateco/v46y2010i5p844-854.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Natural oligopolies with exogenous sunk costs: A non-Suttonian result

Author

Listed:
  • Laussel, Didier
  • Lahmandi-Ayed, Rim

Abstract

In a spatial competition model with exogenous fixed costs and divisible goods, we obtain non-Suttonian results. When the economy is infinitely replicated, the number of firms does go to infinity but, as consumers' income goes to infinity, the equilibrium number of firms tends toward a finite value. This occurs because the global demand to each firm becomes in the limit infinitely sensitive to price differentials since they give then rise to infinitely large differences in purchase expenditure.

Suggested Citation

  • Laussel, Didier & Lahmandi-Ayed, Rim, 2010. "Natural oligopolies with exogenous sunk costs: A non-Suttonian result," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 844-854, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:mateco:v:46:y:2010:i:5:p:844-854
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304-4068(10)00060-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1990. "Multiproduct Firms and Market Structure," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 45-62, Spring.
    2. Anderson, Simon P. & de Palma, Andre, 2000. "From local to global competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 423-448, March.
    3. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    4. Gerben Bakker, 2005. "The decline and fall of the European film industry: sunk costs, market size, and market structure, 1890–1927," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(2), pages 310-351, May.
    5. Lahmandi-Ayed, Rim, 2010. "Spatial differentiation, divisible consumption and the pro-competitive effect of income," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 71-85, January.
    6. Sutton, John, 1996. "Technology and market structure," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 511-530, April.
    7. Simon Latcovich & Howard Smith, 2001. "Pricing, Sunk Costs, and Market Structure Online: Evidence from," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 17(2), pages 217-234, Summer.
    8. Astrid A. Dick, 2007. "Market Size, Service Quality, and Competition in Banking," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(1), pages 49-81, February.
    9. Pedro L. Marín & Georges Siotis, 2007. "Innovation And Market Structure: An Empirical Evaluation Of The ‘Bounds Approach’ In The Chemical Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 93-111, March.
    10. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1983. "Natural Oligopolies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(5), pages 1469-1483, September.
    11. Paul B. Ellickson, 2007. "Does Sutton apply to supermarkets?," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(1), pages 43-59, March.
    12. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1987. "Product Differentiation and Industrial Structure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 131-146, December.
    13. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    14. Ellickson, Paul, 2005. "Does Sutton Apply to Supermarkets?," Working Papers 05-05, Duke University, Department of Economics.
    15. Ollinger, Michael & Fernandez-Cornejo, Jorge, 1998. "Sunk costs and regulation in the U.S. pesticide industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 139-168, March.
    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. Manez, J.A. & Waterson, M., 2001. "Multiproduct Firms and Product Differentiation: a Survey," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 594, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Auer, Raphael A. & Sauré, Philip, 2017. "Dynamic entry in vertically differentiated markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 177-205.
    3. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, January.
    4. Burghardt, Dirk, 2013. "The Impact of Trade Policy on Industry Concentration in Switzerland," Economics Working Paper Series 1317, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    5. Constantatos, Christos & Perrakis, Stylianos, 1995. "Différenciation verticale et structure du marché," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 71(1), pages 71-98, mars.
    6. Ralph Siebert, 2003. "The Introduction of New Product Qualities by Incumbent Firms: Market Proliferation versus Cannibalization," CIG Working Papers SP II 2003-11, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    7. Benjamin C. Anderson & Ian M. Sheldon, 2024. "R&D Concentration in Soybean and Cotton Markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 64(1), pages 93-115, February.
    8. Alfaihani, Sara & Badunenko, Oleg & Jaffry, Shabbar, 2021. "Market size and market structure in banking," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    9. Ellickson, Paul B., 2006. "Quality competition in retailing: A structural analysis," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 521-540, May.
    10. A. Yeşim Orhun & Sriram Venkataraman & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2016. "Impact of Competition on Product Decisions: Movie Choices of Exhibitors," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 73-92, January.
    11. Alessandro Gavazza, 2011. "Demand spillovers and market outcomes in the mutual fund industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 42(4), pages 776-804, December.
    12. repec:zbw:rwirep:0033 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Catherine Matraves & Laura Rondi, 2007. "Product Differentiation, Industry Concentration and Market Share Turbulence," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 37-57.
    14. Gu Yiquan & Wenzel Tobias, 2012. "Price-Dependent Demand in Spatial Models," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, March.
    15. Carsten Eckel, 2009. "International Trade and Retailing," CESifo Working Paper Series 2597, CESifo.
    16. Volker Grossmann, 2003. "Managerial Job Assignment and Imperfect Competition in Asymmetric Equilibrium," CESifo Working Paper Series 914, CESifo.
    17. Xavier Vives, 2008. "Innovation And Competitive Pressure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 419-469, December.
    18. V. Bhaskar & Ted To, 2000. "Is Perfect Price Discrimination Really Efficient? An Analysis of Free Entry Equilibria," Industrial Organization 0004011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Tauman, Yair & Urbano, Amparo & Watanabe, Junichi, 1997. "A Model of Multiproduct Price Competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 377-401, December.
    20. Choné, Philippe & Linnemer, Laurent, 2020. "Linear demand systems for differentiated goods: Overview and user’s guide," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    21. Alexei Alexandrov, 2008. "Fat Products," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 67-95, March.
      • Alexei Alexandrov, 2006. "Fat Products," Discussion Papers 1435, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.

    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:mateco:v:46:y:2010:i:5:p:844-854. 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/jmateco .

    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.