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Price competition in markets with customer testing: the captive customer effect

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  • Heidrun Hoppe
  • Ulrich Lehmann-Grube

Abstract

We introduce product differentiation into the analysis of price competition in markets where suppliers test customers in order to assess whether they will pay for received goods or services. We find that, if the degree of differentiation is sufficiently high, suppliers may improve the average probability that their clientele will pay by charging higher prices. This helps suppliers to sustain high prices in equilibrium. Moreover, endogenizing locations in product space, we demonstrate that the high price level can be implemented in a pure-strategy subgame-perfect equilibrium with a high degree of differentiation. This is in contrast to the original Hotelling model with linear travel costs where a pure-strategy subgame-perfect equilibrium fails to exist.
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  • Heidrun Hoppe & Ulrich Lehmann-Grube, 2008. "Price competition in markets with customer testing: the captive customer effect," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 35(3), pages 497-521, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:35:y:2008:i:3:p:497-521
    DOI: 10.1007/s00199-007-0250-7
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    3. Gehrig, Thomas & Stenbacka, Rune, 2021. "Journal competition and the quality of published research: Simultaneous versus sequential screening," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hotelling; Price competition; Testing; Mixed strategies; Iterated elimination of strictly dominated strategies; D83; G21; L13;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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