IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/germec/v3y2002i1p25-41.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market Size, Technology Choice, and Market Structure

Author

Listed:
  • Walter Elberfeld
  • Georg Götz

Abstract

We introduce technology choice into a model of monopolistic competition and analyze the structural effects of changes in market size. A larger market leads to the adoption of a large‐scale technology. If a technology switch occurs, the number of firms decreases, and a rationalizing effect arises: individual and aggregate output increases; prices fall. This need not benefit consumers since a technology switch is associated with a decrease in product variety.

Suggested Citation

  • Walter Elberfeld & Georg Götz, 2002. "Market Size, Technology Choice, and Market Structure," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 3(1), pages 25-41, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:3:y:2002:i:1:p:25-41
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-0475.00050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0475.00050
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-0475.00050?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grossman, Gene & Helpman, Elhanan, 1999. "Incomplete Contracts and Industrial Organization," CEPR Discussion Papers 2280, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Walter Elberfeld, 2001. "Explaining Intraindustry Differences in the Extent of Vertical Integration," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 157(3), pages 465-477, September.
    3. Jovanovic, Boyan & MacDonald, Glenn M, 1994. "The Life Cycle of a Competitive Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(2), pages 322-347, April.
    4. Martin A. Carree & A. Roy Thurik, 2000. "The Life Cycle of the U.S. Tire Industry," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(2), pages 254-278, July.
    5. Schmalensee, Richard, 1989. "Inter-industry studies of structure and performance," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 16, pages 951-1009, Elsevier.
    6. Beath,John & Katsoulacos,Yannis, 1991. "The Economic Theory of Product Differentiation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521335263, September.
    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.
    8. McLean, Richard P. & Riordan, Michael H., 1989. "Industry structure with sequential technology choice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-21, February.
    9. Dasgupta, Partha & Stiglitz, Joseph, 1980. "Industrial Structure and the Nature of Innovative Activity," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(358), pages 266-293, June.
    10. James A. Brander & Barbara J. Spencer, 1983. "Strategic Commitment with R&D: The Symmetric Case," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(1), pages 225-235, Spring.
    11. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1987. "Product Differentiation and Industrial Structure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 131-146, December.
    12. Neumann, Manfred & Weigand, Jurgen & Gross, Alexandra & Munter, Markus Thomas, 2001. "Market size, fixed costs and horizontal concentration," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 823-840, April.
    13. Martin A. Carree & A. Roy Thurik, 2000. "The Life Cycle of the U.S. Tire Industry," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 254-278, July.
    14. Marcus Asplund & Rickard Sandin, 1999. "The Number of Firms and Production Capacity in Relation to Market Size," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 69-85, March.
    15. Steven Klepper & Elizabeth Graddy, 1990. "The Evolution of New Industries and the Determinants of Market Structure," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 27-44, Spring.
    16. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    17. Mills, David E. & Smith, William, 1996. "It pays to be different: Endogenous heterogeneity of firms in an oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 317-329, May.
    18. Gort, Michael & Klepper, Steven, 1982. "Time Paths in the Diffusion of Product Innovations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(367), pages 630-653, September.
    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. Georg Götz, 2002. "Existence, Uniqueness, and Symmetry of Free-Entry Cournot Equilibrium: The Importance of Market Size and Technoligy Choice," Vienna Economics Papers 0214, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    2. Georg Götz, 2002. "Existence, Uniqueness, and Symmetry of Free-Entry Cournot Equilibrium: The Importance of Market Size and Technoligy Choice," Vienna Economics Papers vie0214, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    3. Gotz, Georg, 2002. "Sunk costs, windows of profit opportunities, and the dynamics of entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(10), pages 1409-1436, December.
    4. Chistoph Niederhut-Bollmann & Ludwig Theuvsen, 2008. "Strategic management in turbulent markets: The case of the German and Croatian brewing industries," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 13(1), pages 63-88.
    5. Carroni, Elias & Delogu, Marco & Pulina, Giuseppe, 2023. "Technology adoption and specialized labor," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 249-259.
    6. Georg Götz, 2002. "Spatial Competition, Sequential Entry, and Technology Choice," Vienna Economics Papers vie0215, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    7. Georg Götz, 2002. "Spatial Competition, Sequential Entry, and Technology choice," Vienna Economics Papers 0215, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    8. Elberfeld, Walter, 2003. "A note on technology choice, firm heterogeneity and welfare," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 593-605, April.

    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. Ollinger, Michael & Fernandez-Cornejo, Jorge, 1998. "Sunk costs and regulation in the U.S. pesticide industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 139-168, March.
    2. Klepper, Steven & Simons, Kenneth L., 2005. "Industry shakeouts and technological change," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(1-2), pages 23-43, February.
    3. Ghosal, Vivek, 2007. "Small is Beautiful but Size Matters: The Asymmetric Impact of Uncertainty and Sunk Costs on Small and Large Businesses," MPRA Paper 5461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ghosal, Vivek, 2002. "Impact of Uncertainty and Sunk Costs on Firm Survival and Industry Dynamics," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 86, Royal Economic Society.
    5. Hackl, Franz & Kummer, Michael E. & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Zulehner, Christine, 2014. "Market structure and market performance in E-commerce," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 199-218.
    6. Catherine Matraves & Laura Rondi, 2007. "Product Differentiation, Industry Concentration and Market Share Turbulence," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 37-57.
    7. Charles Bérubé & Marc Duhamel & Daniel Ershov, 2012. "Market Incentives for Business Innovation: Results from Canada," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 47-65, March.
    8. Carree, M. A. & Thurik, A. R., 1999. "The carrying capacity and entry and exit flows in retailing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(7), pages 985-1007, October.
    9. Kitamura, Hiroshi & Miyaoka, Akira & Sato, Misato, 2013. "Free entry, market diffusion, and social inefficiency with endogenously growing demand," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 98-116.
    10. Santanu Roy & Takashi Kamihigashi, 2004. "Investment, Externalities & Industry Dynamics," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 144, Econometric Society.
    11. Vivek Ghosal, 2003. "Endemic Volatility of Firms and Establishments: Are Real Options Effects Important?," CIG Working Papers SP II 2003-13, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    12. Vivek Ghosal, 2003. "Firm and Establishment Volatility: The Role of Sunk Costs, Profit Uncertainty and Technological Change," CESifo Working Paper Series 980, CESifo.
    13. Hien Tran & Enrico Santarelli & Enrico Zaninotto, 2015. "Efficiency or bounded rationality? Drivers of firm diversification strategies in Vietnam," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 983-1010, November.
    14. Martin Gaynor, "undated". "What Do We Know About Competition and Quality in Health Care Markets?," GSIA Working Papers 2006-E62, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    15. Javier Garcia-Sanchez & Luiz F. Mesquita & Roberto S. Vassolo, 2014. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger: The evolution of competition and entry-order advantages in economically turbulent contexts," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(13), pages 1972-1992, December.
    16. Behrens, Kristian & Murata, Yasusada, 2012. "Trade, competition, and efficiency," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 1-17.
    17. Petrakis, Emmanuel & Roy, Santanu, 1999. "Cost-Reducing Investment, Competition, and Industry Dynamics," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(2), pages 381-401, May.
    18. Neumann, Manfred & Weigand, Jurgen & Gross, Alexandra & Munter, Markus Thomas, 2001. "Market size, fixed costs and horizontal concentration," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 823-840, April.
    19. Nicolas Le Pape & Kai Zhao, 2010. "Cost-saving or Cost-enhancing Mergers: the Impact of the Distribution of Roles in Oligopoly," TEPP Working Paper 2010-18, TEPP.
    20. Maria Guadalupe, 2007. "Product Market Competition, Returns to Skill, and Wage Inequality," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(3), pages 439-474.

    More about this item

    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:bla:germec:v:3:y:2002:i:1:p:25-41. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.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.