Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Maximum or Minimum Differentiation? An Empirical Investigation into the Location of Firms

Contents:

Author Info

  • Janet S. Netz

    (Purdue University)

  • Beck A. Taylor

    (Baylor University)

Abstract

We empirically test some implications from location theory using the location of Los Angeles area gasoline stations in physical space and in the space of product attributes. We consider the effect of demand patterns, entry costs, and several proxies for competition -- the total number of stations, the proportion of independent stations, and the proportion of same-brand stations in a market -- on the tendency for a gasoline station to be physically located more or less closely to its competitors. Using an estimation procedure that controls for spatial correlation and controlling for market characteristics as well as non- spatial product attributes, we find that firms locate their stations in an attempt to spatially differentiate their product as general market competition increases. In other words, the incentive to differentiate in order to soften price competition dominates the incentive to cluster locations to attract consumers from rivals. We also find that spatial differentiation increases as stations become more differentiated in other station characteristics.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://128.118.178.162/eps/io/papers/9812/9812003.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Industrial Organization with number 9812003.

as in new window
Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: 15 Dec 1998
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:9812003

Note: Type of Document - Tex; prepared on IBM PC - EmTeX; to print on pdf; pages: 29
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://128.118.178.162

Related research

Keywords: product differentiation; spatial theory; location theory; retail gasoline;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

No references listed on IDEAS
You can help add them by filling out this form.

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Darlene Chisholm & George Norman, 2012. "Spatial competition and market share: an application to motion pictures," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 207-225, August.
  2. Darlene C. Chisholm & George Norman, 2002. "Spatial Competition and Demand: An Application to Motion Pictures," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0216, Department of Economics, Tufts University.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:9812003

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (EconWPA).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.