IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxecpp/v73y2021i2p879-902..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How hard is it to maximize profit? Evidence from a 19th-century Italian state monopoly
[Estimation and hypothesis testing in dynamic singular equation systems]

Author

Listed:
  • Carlo Ciccarelli
  • Gianni De Fraja
  • Silvia Tiezzi

Abstract

In this paper, we study the ability of the 19th-century Italian government to choose profit maximizing prices for a multiproduct monopolist. We use very detailed historical data on the tobacco consumption in 62 Italian provinces from 1871 to 1888 to estimate a differentiated product demand system. The demand conditions and the legal environment of the period made this market as close to a textbook monopoly as is practically possible. The government’s stated aim for this industry was profit maximization: since at the time profits from tobacco were close to 10% of the revenues for the cash-strapped government, the stated aim was very likely the true one. Our empirical application uses historical price and cost data, and suggests that the government was not wide off the mark: the tobacco prices were ‘not far’ from those dictated by the multiproduct monopoly formulae for profit maximization with interdependent demand functions.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Ciccarelli & Gianni De Fraja & Silvia Tiezzi, 2021. "How hard is it to maximize profit? Evidence from a 19th-century Italian state monopoly [Estimation and hypothesis testing in dynamic singular equation systems]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 73(2), pages 879-902.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:73:y:2021:i:2:p:879-902.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpz076
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    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. 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. Sijbren Cnossen, 2006. "Tobacco taxation in the European Union," CPB Discussion Paper 67, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    3. Anderson, G J & Blundell, R W, 1982. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing in Dynamic Singular Equation Systems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1559-1571, November.
    4. Federico, Giovanni, 2007. "Market integration and market efficiency: The case of 19th century Italy," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 293-316, April.
    5. Holt, Matthew T., 1998. "Autocorrelation specification in singular equation systems: A further look," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 135-141, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Moschini, Giancarlo, 1999. "Imposing Local Curvature Conditions in Flexible Demand Systems," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(4), pages 487-490, October.
    8. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    9. Robert A. Pollak, 1969. "Conditional Demand Functions and Consumption Theory," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 83(1), pages 60-78.
    10. 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.
    11. Frank J. Chaloupka, IV & Richard Peck & John A. Tauras & Xin Xu & Ayda Yurekli, 2010. "Cigarette Excise Taxation: The Impact of Tax Structure on Prices, Revenues, and Cigarette Smoking," NBER Working Papers 16287, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Gregory J. Colman & Dahlia K. Remler, 2008. "Vertical equity consequences of very high cigarette tax increases: If the poor are the ones smoking, how could cigarette tax increases be progressive?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 376-400.
    13. Vecchi, Giovanni, 2017. "Measuring Wellbeing: A History of Italian Living Standards," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199944590.
    14. Cornes,Richard, 1992. "Duality and Modern Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521336017.
    15. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    16. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    17. Jaskold Gabszewicz, J. & Thisse, J. -F., 1979. "Price competition, quality and income disparities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 340-359, June.
    18. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Quadratic Engel Curves And Consumer Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 527-539, November.
    19. Kyrre Rickertsen, 1998. "The demand for food and beverages in Norway," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 18(1), pages 89-100, January.
    20. Diewert, W. E. & Wales, T. J., 1988. "A normalized quadratic semiflexible functional form," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 327-342, March.
    21. David L. Ryan & Terence J. Wales, 1999. "Flexible And Semiflexible Consumer Demands With Quadratic Engel Curves," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 277-287, May.
    22. Fenoaltea, Stefano, 2005. "The growth of the Italian economy, 1861–1913: Preliminary second-generation estimates," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(3), pages 273-312, December.
    23. Sijbren Cnossen, 2006. "Tobacco Taxation in the European Union," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 62(2), pages 305-322, June.
    24. de Boer, P. M. C. & Harkema, R., 1986. "Maximum likelihood estimation of sum-constrained linear models with insufficient observations," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 325-329.
    25. David L. Edgerton, 1997. "Weak Separability and the Estimation of Elasticities in Multistage Demand Systems," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(1), pages 62-79.
    26. A. P. Lerner, 1934. "The Concept of Monopoly and the Measurement of Monopoly Power," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 1(3), pages 157-175.
    27. Sijbren Cnossen, 2006. "Tobacco Taxation in the European Union," CESifo Working Paper Series 1718, CESifo.
    28. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1980. "An Almost Ideal Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 312-326, June.
    29. Asplund, Björn Marcus, 2007. "A Test of Profit Maximization," CEPR Discussion Papers 6177, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    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. Xinyu Hou & Puyang Sun, 2023. "The impact of dismantling state monopoly on market integration: Evidence from the edible salt reform in China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 589-609, July.

    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. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, January.
    2. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    3. Holt, Matthew T. & Goodwin, Barry K., 2009. "The Almost Ideal and Translog Demand Systems," MPRA Paper 15092, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Barnett, William A. & Serletis, Apostolos, 2008. "Consumer preferences and demand systems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 210-224, December.
    5. Corchón Luis Carlos & Zudenkova Galina, 2013. "The Welfare Effects of Location and Quality in Oligopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1143-1178, July.
    6. Parenti, Mathieu & Ushchev, Philip & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2017. "Toward a theory of monopolistic competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 86-115.
    7. 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.
    8. Anderson, Simon P. & Gabszewicz, Jean J., 2006. "The Media and Advertising: A Tale of Two-Sided Markets," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 567-614, Elsevier.
    9. 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.
    10. Auer, Raphael A. & Sauré, Philip, 2017. "Dynamic entry in vertically differentiated markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 177-205.
    11. 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.
    12. Scatasta, Sara & Wesseler, Justus & Hobbs, Jill E., 2005. "The Impact of Labeling Practices on Perceived Quality of GM Food Products: A Revealed Preferences Approach," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24599, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Richard Schmalensee, 2012. "“On a Level with Dentists?” Reflections on the Evolution of Industrial Organization," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 41(3), pages 157-179, November.
    14. Sara Scatasta & Justus Wesseler & Jill Hobbs, 2007. "Differentiating the consumer benefits from labeling of GM food products," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(2‐3), pages 237-242, September.
    15. Alessio Emanuele Biondo & Alfio Giarlotta & Alessandro Pluchino & Andrea Rapisarda, 2016. "Perfect Information vs Random Investigation: Safety Guidelines for a Consumer in the Jungle of Product Differentiation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, January.
    16. Rey, Patrick & Salant, David, 2012. "Abuse of dominance and licensing of intellectual property," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 518-527.
    17. Odermatt, Reto & Stutzer, Alois, 2018. "Tobacco Control Policies and Smoking Behavior in Europe: More Than Trends?," Working papers 2018/24, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. 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.
    19. Gulati, Namrata & Ray, Tridip, 2016. "Inequality, neighbourhoods and welfare of the poor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 214-228.
    20. Christopher S. Yoo, 2017. "Avoiding the Pitfalls of Net Uniformity: Zero Rating and Nondiscrimination," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(4), pages 509-536, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    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:oup:oxecpp:v:73:y:2021:i:2:p:879-902.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oep .

    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.