IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/regeco/v42y2012i6p1017-1022.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hotelling meets Weber

Author

Listed:
  • Lai, Fu-Chuan
  • Tabuchi, Takatoshi

Abstract

In this paper, spatial competition between two sellers in a market (Hotelling, 1929) and total transportation costs minimization (Weber, 1909) are combined, and equilibrium and optimum locations of firms are analyzed along with the consequent policy implications. We show that when the output prices are fixed and equal, both firms agglomerate at the market center, irrespective of the distribution of inputs. Further, we also show that when output price is endogenous, the middle point of firm locations in Hotelling's model is identical to the Weber point. Finally, we show that the locations of Hotelling's firms are far from the socially optimal location.

Suggested Citation

  • Lai, Fu-Chuan & Tabuchi, Takatoshi, 2012. "Hotelling meets Weber," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 1017-1022.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:42:y:2012:i:6:p:1017-1022
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2011.09.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046211001086
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2011.09.001?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. P. Hansen & J.-F. Thisse & R. E. Wendell, 1986. "Equivalence of Solutions to Network Location Problems," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 672-678, November.
    2. 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).
    3. M Birkin & A G Wilson, 1986. "Industrial Location Models 2: Weber, Palander, Hotelling, and Extensions within a New Framework," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 18(3), pages 293-306, March.
    4. 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.
    5. M Birkin & A G Wilson, 1986. "Industrial Location Models 1: A Review and an Integrating Framework," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 18(2), pages 175-205, February.
    6. repec:cor:louvrp:-747 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Guo, Wen-Chung & Lai, Fu-Chuan & Zeng, Dao-Zhi, 2015. "A Hotelling model with production," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 40-49.

    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. Eiselt, H. A. & Laporte, Gilbert, 1997. "Sequential location problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 217-231, January.
    2. Borenstein, Severin & Netz, Janet, 1999. "Why do all the flights leave at 8 am?: Competition and departure-time differentiation in airline markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 611-640, July.
    3. Gianmarco I P Ottaviano & Jacques-François Thisse, 2005. "New Economic Geography: What about the N?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(10), pages 1707-1725, October.
    4. Fujita, Masahisa & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2009. "New Economic Geography: An appraisal on the occasion of Paul Krugman's 2008 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 109-119, March.
    5. Salvanes, Kjell G. & Steen, Frode & Sorgard, Lars, 2005. "Hotelling in the air? Flight departures in Norway," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 193-213, March.
    6. Heijnen, Pim & Soetevent, Adriaan R., 2018. "Price competition on graphs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 161-179.
    7. MacLeod, W.B. & Norman, G. & Thisse, J.-F., 1988. "Price discrimination and equilibrium in monopolistic competition," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 429-446.
    8. Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2004. "Agglomeration and economic geography," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 58, pages 2563-2608, Elsevier.
    9. Thisse, Jacques-François & Fujita, Masahisa, 2008. "New Economic Geography: an appraisal on the occasion of Paul Krugman's 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics," CEPR Discussion Papers 7063, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Buechel, Berno & Roehl, Nils, 2015. "Robust equilibria in location games," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(2), pages 505-517.
    11. Vladimir Marianov & H. A. Eiselt, 2016. "On agglomeration in competitive location models," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 246(1), pages 31-55, November.
    12. Chisholm, Darlene C. & Norman, George, 2004. "Heterogeneous preferences and location choice with multi-product firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 321-339, May.
    13. Ohsawa, Yoshiaki, 1999. "Cross-border shopping and commodity tax competition among governments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 33-51, January.
    14. Raith, Michael, 1996. "Spatial retail markets with commuting consumers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 447-463, June.
    15. Madden, Paul, 2006. "Geographical separation of oligopolists can be very competitive," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(7), pages 1709-1728, October.
    16. Alan Roncoroni & Matus Medo, 2016. "Spatial firm competition in two dimensions with linear transportation costs: simulations and analytical results," Papers 1609.04944, arXiv.org.
    17. Kress, Dominik & Pesch, Erwin, 2012. "Sequential competitive location on networks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 217(3), pages 483-499.
    18. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Michel Moreaux & Marcel Boyer & Philippe Mahenc, 1991. "Concurrence spatiale et distorsions de localisation en information incomplète," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 42(6), pages 1047-1088.
    19. Jean-Marc Siroën, 1993. "Marchés contestables, différenciation des produits et discrimination des prix," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 44(3), pages 569-592.
    20. Alain Egli, 2005. "Hotelling's Beach with Linear and Quadratic Transportation Costs: Existence of Pure Strategy Equilibria," Diskussionsschriften dp0509, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hotelling; Weber; Location competition; Social welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    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:regeco:v:42:y:2012:i:6:p:1017-1022. 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/regec .

    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.