Dynamic Competition with Switching Costs
Abstract
We analyze an overlapping-generations model of duopolistic competition in the presence of consumer switching costs. Competition for established buyers is continually intermingled with competition for new, uncommitted buyers. In equilibrium the firm with attached customers typically specializes in serving them and concedes new buyers to its rival. This pattern of repeated entry persists even when there are economies of scale or network externalities. Switching costs thus can cause inefficiency in a surprising way: far from forming an entry barrier, they encourage entry to serve new customers, even when such entry is inefficient.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley in its series Department of Economics, Working Paper Series with number qt1h02g9q4.Length:
Date of creation: 11 Jan 1988
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cdl:econwp:qt1h02g9q4
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Keywords: switching costs; dynamic competition; lock-in; long-term relationships; overlapping generations; Economics; Economic Theory;Other versions of this item:
- Joseph Farrell & Carl Shapiro, 1988. "Dynamic Competition with Switching Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(1), pages 123-137, Spring.
- Joseph Farrell and Carl Shapiro., 1988. "Dynamic Competition with Switching Costs," Economics Working Papers 8865, University of California at Berkeley.
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As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Why learning economics is of no use, or how Flexstrom managed to fleece me
by Alexia Gaudeul in Alexia Gaudeul's Blog on 2012-04-12 12:00:00
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