IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/39691.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Welfare Effects of Exclusive Distribution Arrangements

Author

Listed:
  • Eichberger, Jürgen
  • Mueller-Langer, Frank

Abstract

The regulation of vertical relationships between firms is the subject of persistent legal and academic controversy. The literature studying vertical trade relationships seems to assume that an upstream monopolist prefers downstream competition over exclusive distribution arrangements. We derive precise conditions for when an upstream monopolist prefers competing distribution systems over exclusive distribution in the downstream market. We also show that the welfare effects of downstream competition are ambiguous. A downstream oligopoly may have negative welfare properties compared to a downstream monopoly.

Suggested Citation

  • Eichberger, Jürgen & Mueller-Langer, Frank, 2012. "On the Welfare Effects of Exclusive Distribution Arrangements," MPRA Paper 39691, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:39691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/39691/1/MPRA_paper_39691.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baye, Michael R & Crocker, Keith J & Ju, Jiandong, 1996. "Divisionalization, Franchising, and Divestiture Incentives in Oligopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 223-236, March.
    2. Ehrlich Everett M. & Eisenach Jeffrey A. & Leighton Wayne A., 2010. "The Impact of Regulation on Innovation and Choice in Wireless Communications," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-51, February.
    3. de Fontenay, Catherine C. & Gans, Joshua S. & Groves, Vivienne, 2010. "Exclusivity, competition and the irrelevance of internal investment," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 336-340, July.
    4. Saggi, Kamal & Vettas, Nikolaos, 2002. "On intrabrand and interbrand competition: The strategic role of fees and royalties," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 189-200, January.
    5. Durham, Yvonne, 2000. "An experimental examination of double marginalization and vertical relationships," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 207-229, June.
    6. Keith E. Maskus & Yongmin Chen, 2004. "Vertical Price Control and Parallel Imports: Theory and Evidence," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 551-570, September.
    7. Martin Richardson, 2017. "Trade Policy and Access to Retail Distribution," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Dimensions of Trade Policy, chapter 12, pages 243-262, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Polasky, Stephen, 1992. "Divide and conquer On the profitability of forming independent rival divisions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 365-371, November.
    9. Spiegel, Yossi & Yehezkel, Yaron, 2003. "Price and non-price restraints when retailers are vertically differentiated," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 923-947, September.
    10. Justine S. Hastings & Richard J. Gilbert, 2005. "Market Power, Vertical Integration And The Wholesale Price Of Gasoline," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 469-492, December.
    11. Ganslandt, Mattias & Maskus, Keith E., 2007. "Vertical distribution, parallel trade, and price divergence in integrated markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 943-970, May.
    12. Matthias Lutz, 2004. "Pricing in Segmented Markets, Arbitrage Barriers, and the Law of One Price: Evidence from the European Car Market," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 456-475, August.
    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. Frank Mueller-Langer, 2014. "Copyright and parallel trade," Chapters, in: Richard Watt (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Copyright, chapter 16, pages 287-310, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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. Hans Gersbach & Hans Haller, 2018. "Hierarchical Trade," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(2), pages 1165-1184, April.
    2. Saggi, Kamal & Vettas, Nikolaos, 2002. "On intrabrand and interbrand competition: The strategic role of fees and royalties," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 189-200, January.
    3. Antonio Tesoriere, 2021. "Drastic innovation reduces firms’ incentives to create divisions," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 971-994, October.
    4. Martino De Stefano & Marc Rysman, 2010. "Competition Policy as Strategic Trade with Differentiated Products," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 758-771, September.
    5. Laura Birg, 2015. "Externalities of National Pharmaceutical Policy when Markets are Integrated through Parallel Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 558-574, August.
    6. Frank Mueller‐Langer, 2012. "Parallel Trade and its Ambiguous Effects on Global Welfare," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 177-185, February.
    7. Li, Hai & Shao, Jing & Zhu, Stuart X., 2018. "Parallel importation in a supply Chain: The impact of gray market structure," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 220-241.
    8. Corchon, Luis C. & Gonzalez-Maestre, Miguel, 2000. "On the competitive effects of divisionalization," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 71-79, January.
    9. Ziss, Steffen, 1999. "Divisionalization and strategic managerial incentives in oligopoly under uncertainty," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(8), pages 1163-1187, November.
    10. Tan, Guofu & Yuan, Lasheng, 2003. "Strategic incentives of divestitures of competing conglomerates," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 673-697, May.
    11. Laura Birg, 2023. "Parallel imports under a manufacturer rebate and a price freeze: Evidence from Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 302-323, February.
    12. Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis & Schmitt, Nicolas, 2010. "Commodity taxation and parallel imports," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 153-162, February.
    13. Marina Tsygankova, 2007. "When is Mighty Gazprom Good for Russia?," Discussion Papers 526, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    14. Cosnita-Langlais, Andreea, 2012. "Horizontal market concentration: Theoretical insights from spatial models," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 22-32.
    15. Tsygankova, Marina, 2010. "When is a break-up of Gazprom good for Russia?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 908-917, July.
    16. Tomomichi Mizuno, 2009. "Divisionalization And Horizontal Mergers In A Vertical Relationship," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 77(3), pages 317-336, June.
    17. Mazumdar, Mainak & Banerjee, Dyuti S., 2012. "On price discrimination, parallel trade and the availability of patented drugs in developing countries," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 188-195.
    18. Santanu Roy & Kamal Saggi, 2012. "Strategic competition and optimal parallel import policy," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(4), pages 1369-1396, November.
    19. Andrea Mantovani & Alireza Naghavi, 2010. "Parallel Imports and Innovation in an Emerging Economy," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 038, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    20. Giorgio Matteucci & Pierfrancesco Reverberi, 2011. "Parallel trade and its impact on incentives to invest in product quality," DIS Technical Reports 2011-05, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exclusive distribution; Competing distribution; Vertical foreclosure; Cournot competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • L42 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Vertical Restraints; Resale Price Maintenance; Quantity Discounts
    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies

    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:pra:mprapa:39691. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.