Both product differentiation through quality and capacity commitment have been shown to relax price competition. However, they have not been considered simultaneously. To this end we consider a three stage game where Þrms choose quality then commit to capacity and Þnally compete in price. We show that in equilibrium, Þrms differentiate their products less than if they were not able to commit to limited capacities. This is because they are able to enjoy Cournot proÞts at the stage where capacity are chosen. Furthermore if the cost of quality is low, capacity pre-commitment completely eliminates the incentives to differentiate
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Paper provided by Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) in its series CORE Discussion Papers with number
1999056.
Find related papers by JEL classification: L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
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