We analyze models of product differentiation with perfect price discrimination and free entry. Although perfect price discrimination ensures efficient output decisions given product characteristics, coordination failures may prevent efficiency in the choice of product characteristics. More fundamentally, even if we have efficient product choices for a fixed number of firms, one always has excessive entry in free entry equilibrium. Our results apply to a large class of models of product differentiation including location models as well as representative consumer models of the demand for variety. These results also apply to models of common agency or lobbying with free entry and imply that one has excessive entry into the ranks of lobbyists.
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Length: 22 pages Date of creation: 13 Dec 2000 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0004011
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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.:
Kenneth L. Judd, 1983.
"Credible Spatial Preemption,"
Discussion Papers
577, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
[Downloadable!]
Varian, Hal R., 1989.
"Price discrimination,"
Handbook of Industrial Organization,
in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 597-654
Elsevier.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Dirk Bergemann & Juuso Valimaki, 1998.
"Dynamic Common Agency,"
Discussion Papers
1259, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
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