IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_10263.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Theory of Monopolistic Competition with Horizontally Heterogeneous Consumers

Author

Listed:
  • Sergey Kokovin
  • Alina Ozhegova
  • Shamil Sharapudinov
  • Alexander Tarasov
  • Philip Ushchev
  • Sergey G. Kokovin

Abstract

Our novel approach to modeling monopolistic competition with heterogeneous firms and consumers involves spatial product differentiation. Space can be interpreted either as a geographical space or as a space of characteristics of a differentiated good. In addition to price setting, each firm also chooses its optimal location in this space. We formulate conditions for positive sorting: more productive firms serve larger market segments and face tougher competition; and for the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium. To quantify the role of the sorting mechanism, we calibrate the model using cross-sectional haircut market data and perform counterfactual analysis. We find that inequality in the distribution of the gains among consumers caused by positive market shocks can be substantial: the gains of consumers from more populated locations are 3-4 times higher.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergey Kokovin & Alina Ozhegova & Shamil Sharapudinov & Alexander Tarasov & Philip Ushchev & Sergey G. Kokovin, 2023. "A Theory of Monopolistic Competition with Horizontally Heterogeneous Consumers," CESifo Working Paper Series 10263, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10263
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10263.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Firms in International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 105-130, Summer.
    2. Marcus Asplund & Volker Nocke, 2006. "Firm Turnover in Imperfectly Competitive Markets -super-1," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(2), pages 295-327.
    3. Thierry Mayer & Marc J. Melitz & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2021. "Product Mix and Firm Productivity Responses to Trade Competition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(5), pages 874-891, December.
    4. Marc J. Melitz & Stephen J. Redding, 2015. "New Trade Models, New Welfare Implications," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(3), pages 1105-1146, March.
    5. Stephen J. Redding & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2017. "Quantitative Spatial Economics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 21-58, September.
    6. Kristian Behrens & Gilles Duranton & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2014. "Productive Cities: Sorting, Selection, and Agglomeration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(3), pages 507-553.
    7. Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2005. "A Spatial Theory of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1464-1491, December.
    8. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1707-1721, September.
    9. Carballo, Jeronimo & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2018. "The buyer margins of firms' exports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 33-49.
    10. repec:clu:wpaper:0708-12 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Volker Nocke, 2006. "A Gap for Me: Entrepreneurs and Entry," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(5), pages 929-956, September.
    12. Ushchev, Philip & Zenou, Yves, 2018. "Price competition in product variety networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 226-247.
    13. Alexander Osharin & Valery Verbus, 2018. "Heterogeneity of consumer preferences and trade patterns in a monopolistically competitive setting," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 211-237, November.
    14. Alexander Tarasov, 2012. "Trade Liberalization and Welfare Inequality: A Demand-Based Approach," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1296-1317, December.
    15. Pablo Fajgelbaum & Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2011. "Income Distribution, Product Quality, and International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(4), pages 721-765.
    16. Díez, Federico J. & Fan, Jiayue & Villegas-Sánchez, Carolina, 2021. "Global declining competition?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    17. Martin J. Beckmann, 1972. "Spatial Cournot Oligopoly," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 37-48, January.
    18. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    19. Okubo, Toshihiro & Picard, Pierre M. & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2010. "The spatial selection of heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 230-237, November.
    20. Benjamin Faber & Thibault Fally, 2022. "Firm Heterogeneity in Consumption Baskets: Evidence from Home and Store Scanner Data [Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time over Five Decades]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(3), pages 1420-1459.
    21. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6apm7lruv088iagm4rv2c33jtg is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Monika Mrázová & J. Peter Neary & Mathieu Parenti, 2021. "Sales and Markup Dispersion: Theory and Empirics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1753-1788, July.
    23. Maxim Goryunov & Sergey Kokovin & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2022. "Continuous spatial monopolistic competition: matching goods with consumers," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 74(3), pages 793-832, October.
    24. Evgeny Zhelobodko & Sergey Kokovin & Mathieu Parenti & Jacques‐François Thisse, 2012. "Monopolistic Competition: Beyond the Constant Elasticity of Substitution," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(6), pages 2765-2784, November.
    25. Ina Simonovska, 2015. "Income Differences and Prices of Tradables: Insights from an Online Retailer," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(4), pages 1612-1656.
    26. Paolo Bertoletti & Federico Etro, 2016. "Preferences, entry, and market structure," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(4), pages 792-821, November.
    27. Sergey G. Kokovin & Shamil Sharapudinov & Alexander Tarasov & Philip Ushchev, 2020. "A Theory of Monopolistic Competition with Horizontally Heterogeneous Consumers," CESifo Working Paper Series 8082, CESifo.
    28. Monika Mrázová & J. Peter Neary, 2017. "Not So Demanding: Demand Structure and Firm Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3835-3874, December.
    29. Osharin, Alexander & Thisse, Jacques-François & Ushchev, Philip & Verbus, Valery, 2014. "Monopolistic competition and income dispersion," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 348-352.
    30. Brent Neiman & Joseph Vavra, 2023. "The Rise of Niche Consumption," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 224-264, July.
    31. Behrens, Kristian & Murata, Yasusada, 2007. "General equilibrium models of monopolistic competition: A new approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 776-787, September.
    32. Bau, Natalie, 2019. "Estimating an Equilibrium Model of Horizontal Competition in Education," CEPR Discussion Papers 13924, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    33. Sundaram,Rangarajan K., 1996. "A First Course in Optimization Theory," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521497190.
    34. Behrens, Kristian & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2015. "Agglomeration Theory with Heterogeneous Agents," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 171-245, Elsevier.
    35. Cecile Gaubert, 2018. "Firm Sorting and Agglomeration," NBER Working Papers 24478, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    36. Tarasov Alexander, 2009. "Income Distribution, Market Structure, and Individual Welfare," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-39, December.
    37. Treb Allen & Costas Arkolakis, 2014. "Trade and the Topography of the Spatial Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1085-1140.
    38. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    39. 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.
    40. Sergey Nigai, 2016. "On Measuring the Welfare Gains from Trade Under Consumer Heterogeneity," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(593), pages 1193-1237, June.
    41. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," SciencePo Working papers hal-03579844, HAL.
    42. Robert C. Feenstra & John Romalis, 2014. "International Prices and Endogenous Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 477-527.
    43. Kim, Jae-jin & Hemmert, Martin, 2016. "What drives the export performance of small and medium-sized subcontracting firms? A study of Korean manufacturers," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 511-521.
    44. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74, pages 132-132.
    45. Paolo Bertoletti & Federico Etro, 2017. "Monopolistic Competition when Income Matters," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(603), pages 1217-1243, August.
    46. Carsten Eckel & J. Peter Neary, 2010. "Multi-Product Firms and Flexible Manufacturing in the Global Economy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(1), pages 188-217.
    47. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," Post-Print hal-03579844, HAL.
    48. Alexander Tarasov, 2014. "Preferences and income effects in monopolistic competition models," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 42(3), pages 647-669, March.
    49. Pablo D. Fajgelbaum, 2011. "Income Distribution, Product Quality and International Trade," 2011 Meeting Papers 415, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    50. Maurice Kugler & Eric Verhoogen, 2012. "Prices, Plant Size, and Product Quality," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(1), pages 307-339.
    51. Flora Bellone & Patrick Musso & Lionel Nesta & Frederic Warzynski, 2016. "International trade and firm-level markups when location and quality matter," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 67-91.
    52. Simon P. Anderson, Nisvan Erkal and, 2009. "Aggregative Oligopoly Games with Entry," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1175, The University of Melbourne, revised 2013.
    53. Swati Dhingra & John Morrow, 2019. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity under Firm Heterogeneity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 196-232.
    54. 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.
    55. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03579844, HAL.
    56. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2adadp8ijs8ij8c4htsg0puqid is not listed on IDEAS
    57. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    58. Jonathan Vogel, 2008. "Spatial Competition with Heterogeneous Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(3), pages 423-466, June.
    59. 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.
    60. Cecile Gaubert, 2018. "Firm Sorting and Agglomeration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(11), pages 3117-3153, November.
    61. Christian Hepenstrick & Alexander Tarasov, 2015. "Trade Openness and Cross-country Income Differences," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 271-302, May.
    62. Simon Loertscher & Gerd Muehlheusser, 2011. "Sequential location games," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 42(4), pages 639-663, December.
    63. Simon P. Anderson & Nisvan Erkal & Daniel Piccinin, 2020. "Aggregative games and oligopoly theory: short‐run and long‐run analysis," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(2), pages 470-495, June.
    64. Sundaram,Rangarajan K., 1996. "A First Course in Optimization Theory," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521497701.
    65. Thomas J. Holmes & John J. Stevens, 2014. "An Alternative Theory of the Plant Size Distribution, with Geography and Intra- and International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(2), pages 369-421.
    66. Gaubert, Cécile, 2018. "Firm Sorting and Agglomeration," CEPR Discussion Papers 12835, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    67. Lancaster, Kelvin, 1975. "Socially Optimal Product Differentiation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(4), pages 567-585, September.
    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. Maxim Goryunov & Sergey Kokovin & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2022. "Continuous spatial monopolistic competition: matching goods with consumers," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 74(3), pages 793-832, October.
    2. Sergey G. Kokovin & Shamil Sharapudinov & Alexander Tarasov & Philip Ushchev, 2020. "A Theory of Monopolistic Competition with Horizontally Heterogeneous Consumers," CESifo Working Paper Series 8082, CESifo.
    3. Luca Fontanelli, 2023. "Theories of market selection: a survey," LEM Papers Series 2023/22, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

    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. Maxim Goryunov & Sergey Kokovin & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2022. "Continuous spatial monopolistic competition: matching goods with consumers," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 74(3), pages 793-832, October.
    2. Ziran Ding, 2022. "Firm heterogeneity, variable markups, and multinational production: A review from trade policy perspective," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1311-1357, December.
    3. Jacques-François Thisse & Philip Ushchev, 2018. "Monopolistic competition without apology," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume I, chapter 5, pages 93-136, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Mrázová, Monika & Neary, J. Peter, 2020. "IO for exports(s)," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Etro, Federico, 2017. "Research in economics and monopolistic competition," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 645-649.
    6. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2022. "Markups, quality, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    7. Heiland, Inga & Kohler, Wilhelm, 2022. "Heterogeneous workers, trade, and migration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Gouel, Christophe & Jean, Sébastien, 2023. "Love of variety and gains from trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Ushchev, Philip & Zenou, Yves, 2018. "Price competition in product variety networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 226-247.
    11. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2016. "Quality, trade, and exchange rate pass-through," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 61-80.
    12. Stef Proost & Jacques-François Thisse, 2019. "What Can Be Learned from Spatial Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(3), pages 575-643, September.
    13. Kiminori Matsuyama & Philip Ushchev, 2022. "Selection and Sorting of Heterogeneous Firms through Competitive Pressures," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1189, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    14. Monika Mrázová & J. Peter Neary & Mathieu Parenti, 2021. "Sales and Markup Dispersion: Theory and Empirics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1753-1788, July.
    15. Macedoni, Luca & Weinberger, Ariel, 2022. "Quality heterogeneity and misallocation: The welfare benefits of raising your standards," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    16. Kichko, Sergei & Picard, Pierre M., 2023. "On the effects of income heterogeneity in monopolistically competitive markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    17. José M. Gaspar, 2018. "A prospective review on New Economic Geography," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 61(2), pages 237-272, September.
    18. P. M. Picard & A. Tampieri, 2021. "Vertical differentiation and trade among symmetric countries," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(4), pages 1319-1355, June.
    19. Pascal Belan & Clément Carbonnier & Martine Carré, 2021. "Fiscal Devaluation with Endogenous Markups: Productivity and Welfare," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(4), pages 1159-1189, October.
    20. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm heterogeneity; geographical space; product space; positive sorting; product niches;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_10263. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.