IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5498.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pricing Strategy and Financial Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Sudipto Dasgupta
  • Sheridan Titman

Abstract

Recent empirical evidence indicates that capital structure changes affect pricing strategies. In most cases, prices increase following the implementation of a leveraged buyout of a major firm in an industry, with the more levered firm charging higher prices on average. Notable exceptions exist when rival firms are relatively unlevered. The first observation is consistent with a relatively simple model where firms compete for market share on the basis of price. To explain the second observations (i.e. the exceptions) the model must be extended to allow for reputation effects related to product quality. The extended model illustrates how product market imperfections in combination with high leverage can make firms vulnerable to predatory pricing.

Suggested Citation

  • Sudipto Dasgupta & Sheridan Titman, 1996. "Pricing Strategy and Financial Policy," NBER Working Papers 5498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5498
    Note: CF IO
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5498.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeremy I. Bulow & John Geanakoplos & Paul D. Klemperer, 1983. "Multimarket Oligopoly," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 674, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    2. Froot, Kenneth A & Klemperer, Paul D, 1989. "Exchange Rate Pass-Through When Market Share Matters," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 637-654, September.
    3. Chevalier, Judith A & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Capital-Market Imperfections and Countercyclical Markups: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 703-725, September.
    4. Kaplan, Steven, 1989. "The effects of management buyouts on operating performance and value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 217-254.
    5. Drew Fudenberg & Jean Tirole, 1986. "A "Signal-Jamming" Theory of Predation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(3), pages 366-376, Autumn.
    6. Chong-en Bai & Shan Li, 2000. "Capital Structure and Product Market Strategy," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 1(2), pages 381-400, November.
    7. Titman, Sheridan, 1984. "The effect of capital structure on a firm's liquidation decision," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 137-151, March.
    8. Hirshleifer, David & Suh, Yoon, 1992. "Risk, managerial effort, and project choice," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 308-345, September.
    9. Opler, Tim C & Titman, Sheridan, 1994. "Financial Distress and Corporate Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(3), pages 1015-1040, July.
    10. Phillips, Gordon M., 1995. "Increased debt and industry product markets An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 189-238, February.
    11. Maksimovic, Vojislav, 1990. "Product Market Imperfections and Loan Commitments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1641-1653, December.
    12. Showalter, Dean M, 1995. "Oligopoly and Financial Structure: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 647-653, June.
    13. Bolton, Patrick & Scharfstein, David S, 1990. "A Theory of Predation Based on Agency Problems in Financial Contracting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 93-106, March.
    14. Brander, James A. & Lewis, Tracy R., 1986. "Oligopoly and Financial Structure: The Limited Liability Effect," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 956-970, December.
    15. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    16. James A. Brander & Tracy R. Lewis, 1988. "Bankruptcy Costs and the Theory of Oligopoly," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 21(2), pages 221-243, May.
    17. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 375-394.
    18. Glazer Jacob, 1994. "The Strategic Effects of Long-Term Debt in Imperfect Competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 428-443, April.
    19. Chevalier, Judith A, 1995. "Do LBO Supermarkets Charge More? An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of LBOs on Supermarket Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1095-1112, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Neff, Cornelia, 1997. "Finanzstruktur und strategischer Wettbewerb auf Gütermärkten," Tübinger Diskussionsbeiträge 89, University of Tübingen, School of Business and Economics.
    2. T. Franck & N. Huyghebaert, 2004. "On the Interactions between Capital Structure and Product Markets.A Survey of the Literature," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(4), pages 727-787.
    3. Istaitieh, Abdulaziz & Rodriguez-Fernandez, Jose M., 2006. "Factor-product markets and firm's capital structure: A literature review," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 49-75.
    4. Oechssler, Jorg & Schuhmacher, Frank, 2004. "The limited liability effect in experimental duopoly markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 163-184, February.
    5. Abdulaziz Istaitieh & José M. Rodríguez‐Fernández, 2006. "Factor‐product markets and firm's capital structure: A literature review," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 49-75.
    6. Bandyopadhyay, Arindam & Barua, Nandita Malini, 2016. "Factors determining capital structure and corporate performance in India: Studying the business cycle effects," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 160-172.
    7. Le Pape, Nicolas, 2001. "Endettement des firmes et comportements de rivalité : l’apport des principaux modèles en économie industrielle," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 77(2), pages 281-302, juin.
    8. Povel, Paul & Raith, Michael, 2004. "Financial constraints and product market competition: ex ante vs. ex post incentives," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 917-949, September.
    9. Khanna, Naveen & Tice, Sheri, 2005. "Pricing, exit, and location decisions of firms: Evidence on the role of debt and operating efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 397-427, February.
    10. Michael Riordan, 2003. "How Do Capital Markets Influence Product Market Competition?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 23(3), pages 179-191, December.
    11. Fosu, Samuel, 2013. "Capital structure, product market competition and firm performance: Evidence from South Africa," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 140-151.
    12. Federico Etro, 2010. "Endogenous market structures and the optimal financial structure," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1333-1352, November.
    13. Campos, Javier & Carrasco, Raquel & Requejo, Alejandro, 2003. "Legal form and risk exposure in Spanish firms," MPRA Paper 103405, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2002.
    14. Ulrich Hege, 2010. "Acquisition Values and Optimal Financial (In)Flexibility," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(7), pages 2865-2899, July.
    15. Ferrés, Daniel & Ormazabal, Gaizka & Povel, Paul & Sertsios, Giorgo, 2021. "Capital structure under collusion," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    16. David Smith & Jianguo Chen & Hamish Anderson, 2012. "The relationship between capital structure and product markets: evidence from New Zealand," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 1-24, January.
    17. Campello, Murillo, 2006. "Debt financing: Does it boost or hurt firm performance in product markets?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 135-172, October.
    18. Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 1998. "Debt as a (Credible) Collusive Device, or: "Everybody Happy but the Consumer"," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 243, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 01 Aug 2004.
    19. Billett, Matthew T. & Esmer, Burcu & Yu, Miaomiao, 2018. "Creditor control and product-market competition," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 87-100.
    20. Franck, Bernard & Le Pape, Nicolas, 2008. "The commitment value of the debt: A reappraisal," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 607-615, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:nbr:nberwo:5498. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.