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Product Quality and Market Size

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Author Info
Steven Berry
Joel Waldfogel

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Abstract

Recent literature notes that when quality is produced with fixed costs, a high quality firm can undercut its rival's prices and may find it profitable to invest more in quality as market size grows large. As a result, a market can remain concentrated even as it grows large. When quality is produced with variable costs, by contrast, a wide range of product qualities can coexist in the market because they are offered at different prices. Larger markets will fragment and offer products with a wider range of qualities. Using US urban areas as markets, we examine the relationships between market size and product quality - and between market size and product concentration - for two industries that differ in their quality production process. We document that in the restaurants industry, where quality is produced largely with variable costs, the range of qualities on offer increases in market size, with each product maintaining a small market share. In daily newspapers, where quality is produced with fixed costs, the average quality of products increases with market size, and the market does not fragment as it grows large.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9675.

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Date of creation: May 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9675

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
R3 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Production Analysis and Firm Location

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Jeffrey R. Campbell & Hugo A. Hopenhayn, 2002. "Market Size Matters," NBER Working Papers 9113, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Thomas J Holmes, 2002. "The Role of Cities: Evidence From the Placement of Sales Offices," Working Papers 02-02, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau. [Downloadable!]
  3. Thomas J. Holmes, 2002. "The role of cities: evidence from the placement of sales offices," Staff Report 298, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
  4. Gyourko, Joseph & Tracy, Joseph, 1991. "The Structure of Local Public Finance and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 774-806, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Lisa George & Joel Waldfogel, 2000. "Who Benefits Whom in Daily Newspaper Markets?," NBER Working Papers 7944, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Edward L. Glaeser, Jed Kolko, and Albert Saiz, 2001. "Consumer city," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 27-50, January.
    Other versions:
  7. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1987. "Product Differentiation and Industrial Structure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(2), pages 131-46, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Masahisa Fujita & Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561476.
  10. Bresnahan, Timothy F & Reiss, Peter C, 1991. "Entry and Competition in Concentrated Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(5), pages 977-1009, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-99, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Sinai, Todd & Waldfogel, Joel, 2004. "Geography and the Internet: is the Internet a substitute or a complement for cities?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 1-24, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Patrick Bayer & Hanming Fang & Robert McMillan, 2005. "Separate When Equal? Racial Inequality and Residential Segregation," NBER Working Papers 11507, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Yurko, Anna, 2008. "How Does Income Inequality Affect Market Outcomes in Vertically Differentiated Markets?," MPRA Paper 4028, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Apr 2008. [Downloadable!]
  3. Anderson, Simon P & Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold, 2005. "The Media and Advertising: A Tale of Two-Sided Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 5223, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Andrew Cohen & Michael J. Mazzeo, 2004. "Competition, product differentiation and quality provision: an empirical equilibrium analysis of bank branching decisions," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-46, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  5. Crespi, John M. & Marette, Stéphan, 2006. "Quality and Competition: An Empirical Analysis across Industries," Staff General Research Papers 12555, Iowa State University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. repec:bep:glecon:6:2007:1:5 is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Simon P. Anderson, 2005. "Regulation of Television advertising," Virginia Economics Online Papers 363, University of Virginia, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  8. Jeffrey R. Campbell, 2005. "Competition in large markets," Working Paper Series WP-05-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Clarissa Yeap, 2008. "Price markups in oligopoly models with differentiated products," Economics Bulletin, Economics Bulletin, vol. 12(15), pages 1-10. [Downloadable!]
  10. Vives, Xavier, 2006. "Innovation and competitive pressure," IESE Research Papers D/634, IESE Business School.
    Other versions:
  11. Matthew Gentzkow & Edward L. Glaeser & Claudia Goldin, 2004. "The Rise of the Fourth Estate: How Newspapers Became Informative and Why It Mattered," NBER Working Papers 10791, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  12. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2006. "What Drives Media Slant? Evidence from U.S. Daily Newspapers," NBER Working Papers 12707, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Timothy Dunne & Shawn D. Klimek & Mark J. Roberts & Yi Xu, 2007. "The dynamics of market structure and market size in two health services industries," Working Paper 0712, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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