Recently, some industries have collectively agreed not to produce models that do not meet an energy efficiency (and hence an environmental) standard. This paper presents a simple model that can be used to examine a voluntary collective agreement to limit or completely eliminate the low efficiency model of a given product (e.g., a low efficiency washing machine). We show that, when there is competition between firms, a collective agreement to limit or even eliminate production of the polluting model can actually increase profits for all firms in the industry. This suggests that a collective agreement of this type might actually be beneficial to firms, while at the same time improving environmental quality. However, the implicit enforcement that comes from the public nature of the commitment is necessary to ensure this outcome. This suggests that, by promoting such agreements, policymakers may be able to achieve substantial environmental gains with relatively little inducement. The impact on social welfare will then depend on whether these gains are sufficiently large to offset consumer losses from reductions in product variety and the associated price increases.
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Paper provided by University of Connecticut, Department of Economics in its series Working papers with number
2006-18.
Length: 41 pages Date of creation: Jul 2006 Date of revision:
May 2007 Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2006-18
Note: We acknowledge the very useful comments of Madhu Khanna, Tom Lyons, seminar participants at Yale University, the University of Central Florida and the University of Rhode Island, and participants at the ASSA meetings in Philadelphia. Any remaining errors are our own. Contact details of provider: Postal: University of Connecticut 341 Mansfield Road, Unit 1063 Storrs, CT 06269-1063 Phone: (860) 486-4889 Fax: (860) 486-4463 Web page: http://www.econ.uconn.edu/ More information through EDIRC
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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.:
Brander, James A & Eaton, Jonathan, 1984.
"Product Line Rivalry,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 323-34, June.
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