IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jeczfn/v138y2023i2d10.1007_s00712-022-00807-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When to merge with a lower quality producer?

Author

Listed:
  • Neelanjan Sen

    (Madras School of Economics)

  • Uday Bhanu Sinha

    (University of Delhi)

Abstract

This paper studies the possibility of different types of mergers when firms produce vertically and horizontally differentiated products. Two firms produce a better quality product, while the third firm produces a lower quality product and the firms compete in quantities. The merger of two firms that produce better-quality products is possible if the quality difference (net of cost) or the horizontal product differentiation are high. However, if the quality difference (net of cost) and the horizontal product differentiation are neither too high nor too low, then the firm that produces the better quality product will merge with the firm that produces a lower quality product. Welfare may increase after the merger between the two firms that produce different quality products. However, if the two firms that produce the better quality product merge then welfare always falls.

Suggested Citation

  • Neelanjan Sen & Uday Bhanu Sinha, 2023. "When to merge with a lower quality producer?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 165-188, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jeczfn:v:138:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00712-022-00807-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s00712-022-00807-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00712-022-00807-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00712-022-00807-6?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. Michael Spence, 1976. "Product Selection, Fixed Costs, and Monopolistic Competition," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(2), pages 217-235.
    2. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Horizontal mergers and product quality," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 1063-1103, November.
    3. Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu & Tetsuya Nakajima, 2021. "On the “merger paradox” in price competition with asymmetric product differentiation," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 153-162, March.
    4. Bos Iwan & Vermeulen Dries, 2022. "On the Microfoundation of Linear Oligopoly Demand," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Farrell, Joseph & Shapiro, Carl, 1990. "Horizontal Mergers: An Equilibrium Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 107-126, March.
    6. Orley C. Ashenfelter & Daniel S. Hosken & Matthew C. Weinberg, 2013. "The Price Effects of a Large Merger of Manufacturers: A Case Study of Maytag-Whirlpool," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 239-261, February.
    7. Mueller, Dennis C, 1985. "Mergers and Market Share," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(2), pages 259-267, May.
    8. Roberto Cellini, 2021. "Whom should I merge with? How product substitutability affects merger profitability," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 48(3), pages 337-353, September.
    9. Avinash Dixit, 1979. "A Model of Duopoly Suggesting a Theory of Entry Barriers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 20-32, Spring.
    10. Gugler, Klaus & Mueller, Dennis C. & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin & Zulehner, Christine, 2003. "The effects of mergers: an international comparison," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 625-653, May.
    11. Michèle Breton & Lucia Sbragia, 2021. "Intra-brand competition in a differentiated oligopoly," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 1-40, January.
    12. Takeshi Ebina & Daisuke Shimizu, 2009. "Sequential Mergers With Differing Differentiation Levels," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 237-251, September.
    13. Judy Hsu & X. Henry Wang, 2010. "Horizontal Mergers In A Differentiated Cournot Oligopoly," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 305-314, July.
    14. George Norman & Lynne Pepall & Daniel Richards, 2005. "Product differentiation, cost-reducing mergers, and consumer welfare," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1204-1223, November.
    15. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    16. 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.
    17. 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).
    18. Stephen W. Salant & Sheldon Switzer & Robert J. Reynolds, 1983. "Losses From Horizontal Merger: The Effects of an Exogenous Change in Industry Structure on Cournot-Nash Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(2), pages 185-199.
    19. Stephen Martin, 2009. "Microfoundations for the Linear Demand Product Differentiation Model, with Applications," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1221, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
    20. Yongmin Chen & Michael H. Riordan, 2007. "Price and Variety in the Spokes Model," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(522), pages 897-921, July.
    21. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
    22. Neelanjan Sen & Saumya Kaul & Rajit Biswas, 2021. "Technology licensing under product differentiation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 219-260, December.
    23. Hackner, Jonas, 2000. "A Note on Price and Quantity Competition in Differentiated Oligopolies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 233-239, August.
    24. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    25. Perry, Martin K & Porter, Robert H, 1985. "Oligopoly and the Incentive for Horizontal Merger," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 219-227, March.
    26. Morton I. Kamien & Israel Zang, 1990. "The Limits of Monopolization Through Acquisition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 465-499.
    27. Michael J. Mazzeo & Katja Seim & Mauricio Varela, 2018. "The Welfare Consequences of Mergers with Endogenous Product Choice," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(4), pages 980-1016, December.
    28. Raymond Deneckere & Carl Davidson, 1985. "Incentives to Form Coalitions with Bertrand Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(4), pages 473-486, Winter.
    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. Roberto Cellini, 2021. "Whom should I merge with? How product substitutability affects merger profitability," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 48(3), pages 337-353, September.
    2. 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).
    3. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2004. "The incentives for takeover in oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1067-1089, November.
    4. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Horizontal mergers and product quality," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 1063-1103, November.
    5. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Sorgard, Lars, 1997. "Merger and product range rivalry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 21-42, November.
    6. Cosnita-Langlais, Andreea, 2012. "Horizontal market concentration: Theoretical insights from spatial models," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 22-32.
    7. Kjell Erik Lommerud & Odd Rune Straume & Lars Sørgard, 2006. "National versus international mergers in unionized oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(1), pages 212-233, March.
    8. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    9. Amir, Rabah & Diamantoudi, Effrosyni & Xue, Licun, 2009. "Merger performance under uncertain efficiency gains," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 264-273, March.
    10. Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu & Tetsuya Nakajima, 2021. "On the “merger paradox” in price competition with asymmetric product differentiation," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 153-162, March.
    11. Gabszewicz Jean J. & Marini Marco A. & Tarola Ornella, 2019. "Endogenous Mergers in Markets with Vertically Differentiated Products," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-22, January.
    12. Emilie Dargaud, 2005. "Monopolization through acquisitions in a differentiated product industry," Working Papers 0507, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    13. Sven‐Olof Fridolfsson & Johan Stennek, 2010. "Industry Concentration and Welfare: On the Use of Stock Market Evidence from Horizontal Mergers," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(308), pages 734-750, October.
    14. Emilie Dargaud, 2012. "Endogenous mergers and maximal concentration: a note," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(1), pages 137-146.
    15. Christos Cabolis & Constantine Manasakis & Emmanuel Petrakis, 2008. "Horizontal Mergers and Acquisitions with Endogenous Efficiency Gains," Working Papers 0817, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    16. Etro, Federico, 2016. "Research in economics and industrial organization," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 511-517.
    17. James Gaisford & Stefan Lutz, 2007. "A Multi-Product Framework Generating Waves of Mergers and Divestitures," ICER Working Papers 36-2007, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    18. David Soberman, 2022. "Business Expansion Through Acquisition," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 9(3), pages 74-94, December.
    19. Ivaldi, Marc & Jullien, Bruno & Rey, Patrick & Seabright, Paul & Tirole, Jean, 2003. "The Economics of Unilateral Effects," IDEI Working Papers 222, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    20. Neelanjan Sen & Drishti Narula, 2022. "Merger under horizontal and vertical product differentiation," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 18(4), pages 509-531, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Merger; Oligopoly; Product differentiation; Quality; Cournot;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

    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:kap:jeczfn:v:138:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00712-022-00807-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.