IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jpbect/v19y2017i4p860-874.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Democracy and competition: Vertical differentiation and labor in a general equilibrium model

Author

Listed:
  • Amani Kahloul
  • Rim Lahmandi-Ayed
  • Hejer Lasram
  • Didier Laussel

Abstract

We consider a general equilibrium model with vertical preferences and one or two firms, where workers and consumers are differentiated, respectively, by their sensitivity to effort and their preference for quality. The question in this paper is whether a decentralized choice through majority vote would lead to more or less competition. We compare the duopoly and the monopoly cases from the viewpoint of each individual, then we deduce the choice of the majority. We prove that, under concentrated ownership (where owners have a null density), duopoly is always preferred by the majority; while under egalitarian ownership (where firms are equally shared by all the population), the choice of the majority depends on the relative size of workers' and consumers' segments.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Amani Kahloul & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Hejer Lasram & Didier Laussel, 2017. "Democracy and competition: Vertical differentiation and labor in a general equilibrium model," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(4), pages 860-874, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:19:y:2017:i:4:p:860-874
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jpet.2017.19.issue-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jaskold Gabszewicz, Jean & Vial, Jean-Philippe, 1972. "Oligopoly "A la cournot" in a general equilibrium analysis," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 381-400, June.
    2. Jean-Marc Bonnisseau & Michael Florig, 2003. "Existence and optimality of oligopoly equilibria in linear exchange economies," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 22(4), pages 727-741, November.
    3. Amal Hili & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Hejer Lasram, 2015. "Vertical differentiation and labor market: the differentiation principle revisited," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 633-640.
    4. Michel Balinski & Rida Laraki, 2011. "Election by Majority Judgment: Experimental Evidence," Studies in Public Choice, in: Bernard Dolez & Bernard Grofman & Annie Laurent (ed.), In Situ and Laboratory Experiments on Electoral Law Reform, chapter 0, pages 13-54, Springer.
    5. Gabszewicz, J. & Turrini, A., 2000. "Workers' skills, product quality and industry equilibrium," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 575-593, May.
    6. Dhillon, Amrita & Lockwood, Ben, 2004. "When are plurality rule voting games dominance-solvable?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 55-75, January.
    7. d'Aspremont, Claude & Dos Santos Ferreira, Rodolphe & Gerard-Varet, Louis-Andre, 1997. "General Equilibrium Concepts under Imperfect Competition: A Cournotian Approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 199-230, March.
    8. Busetto, Francesca & Codognato, Giulio & Ghosal, Sayantan, 2008. "Cournot-Walras Equilibrium as a Subgame Perfect Equilibrium," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 837, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    9. Wauthy, Xavier, 1996. "Quality Choice in Models of Vertical Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 345-353, September.
    10. Rabah Amir & Jim Y. Jin & Gerald Pech & Michael Tröge, 2016. "Prices and Deadweight Loss in Multiproduct Monopoly," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 18(3), pages 346-362, June.
    11. Emanuele Bacchiega, 2007. "Wage bargaining and vertical differentiation," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 54(1), pages 35-52, March.
    12. Changying Li & Jianhu Zhang, 2016. "Program Quality Competition in Broadcasting Markets," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 18(4), pages 666-689, August.
    13. Young, H. P., 1988. "Condorcet's Theory of Voting," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 1231-1244, December.
    14. Jean Gabszewicz & Alessandro Turrini, 1999. "Workers' Skills and Product Selection," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 50(3), pages 383-391.
    15. Arthur T. Denzau & Amoz Kats, 1977. "Expected Plurality Voting Equilibrium and Social Choice Functions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(2), pages 227-233.
    16. Choi, Chong Ju & Shin, Hyun Song, 1992. "A Comment on a Model of Vertical Product Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 229-231, June.
    17. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    18. Lutz, Stefan & Turrini, Alessandro, 2006. "A general equilibrium model with vertically differentiated industries, skilled labour and trade," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-19, January.
    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. Rabah Amir & Hend Ghazzai & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed, 2020. "On the Political Economy of Free Trade," Working Papers hal-02506064, HAL.
    2. Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Hejer Lasram & Didier Laussel, 2020. "Is partial privatization of universities a solution for higher education? A successive monopolies model," Working Papers hal-02988323, HAL.
    3. Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Didier Laussel, 2020. "A voting model of privatization," Working Papers hal-02504990, HAL.
    4. Lahmandi-Ayed, Rim & Laussel, Didier, 2022. "When do privatizations have popular support? A voting model," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    5. Hend Ghazzai & Wided Hemissi & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Sana Mami Kefi, 2021. "Note on Democracy and Competition: The Role of Ownership Structure in a General Equilibrium Model with Vertical Preferences," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 131(2), pages 249-261.
    6. Amani Kahloul & Rim Lahmandi‐Ayed & Hejer Lasram, 2019. "Poverty, competition, democracy, and ownership: A general equilibrium model with vertical preferences," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(6), pages 1143-1178, December.
    7. Rabah Amir & Hend Ghazzai & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed, 2023. "On the political economy of economic integration," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(1), pages 61-100, July.
    8. Rim Lahmandi‐Ayed & Hejer Lasram & Didier Laussel, 2021. "Is partial privatization of universities a solution for higher education?," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(6), pages 1174-1198, December.
    9. Hend Ghazzai & Wided Hemissi & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Sana Kefi, 2020. "A Note on Democracy and Competition: The Role of Ownership Structure in a General Equilibrium Model with Vertical Preferences," Working Papers hal-02480175, HAL.

    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. Hend Ghazzai & Wided Hemissi & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Sana Mami Kefi, 2021. "Note on Democracy and Competition: The Role of Ownership Structure in a General Equilibrium Model with Vertical Preferences," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 131(2), pages 249-261.
    2. Hend Ghazzai & Wided Hemissi & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Sana Kefi, 2020. "A Note on Democracy and Competition: The Role of Ownership Structure in a General Equilibrium Model with Vertical Preferences," Working Papers hal-02480175, HAL.
    3. Busetto, Francesca & Codognato, Giulio & Ghosal, Sayantan, 2011. "Noncooperative oligopoly in markets with a continuum of traders," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 38-45, May.
    4. Emanuele Bacchiega & Antonio Minniti, 2015. "Training and Product Quality in Unionized Oligopolies," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1261-1301, December.
    5. BACCHIEGA, Emanuele, 2004. "Vertical differentiation, wage bargaining and intra-industry trade liberalization," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2004028, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Cheng Yi-Ling & Peng Shin-Kun & Tabuchi Takatoshi, 2011. "Multiproduct Duopoly with Vertical Differentiation," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-29, August.
    7. Julien, Ludovic A., 2011. "Unemployment equilibrium and economic policy in mixed markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1931-1940, July.
    8. Acharyya, Rajat, 1998. "Monopoly and product quality: Separating or pooling menu?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 187-194, November.
    9. Ludovic A. Julien & Fabrice Tricou, 2008. "Market Price Mechanisms and Stackelberg General Equilibria," Working Papers hal-04140726, HAL.
    10. Dongmin Yao & Pengyuan Zhang & Xiaoyu Meng, 2023. "How to eliminate the uncovered market: A duopoly model with government intervention," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(2), pages 631-658, June.
    11. Kahina Cherfi-Feroukhi & Said Souam, 2019. "Formal and Informal Interactions in a Duopoly Model," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1095-1102.
    12. Hsiu-Li Chen, 2009. "Gray Marketing: Does It Hurt the Manufacturers?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 37(1), pages 23-35, March.
    13. Vandenbussche, Hylke & Wauthy, Xavier, 2001. "Inflicting injury through product quality: how European antidumping policy disadvantages European producers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 101-116, March.
    14. Luigi Filippini, 1999. "Leapfrogging in a Vertical Product Differentiation Model," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 245-256.
    15. Amal Hili & Rim Lahmandi-Ayed & Hejer Lasram, 2016. "Differentiation, labor market and globalization," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 809-833, September.
    16. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2008:i:34:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Corrado Benassi & Alessandra Chirco & Caterina Colombo, 2006. "Vertical Differentiation And The Distribution Of Income," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 345-367, October.
    18. Bacchiega, Emanuele & Randon, Emanuela & Zirulia, Lorenzo, 2012. "Strategic accessibility competition," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 195-212.
    19. Fabian Herweg, 2012. "Relaxing competition through quality differentiation and price discrimination," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 1-26, May.
    20. Onur A. Koska, 2020. "Sourcing product quality for foreign market entry," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 669-702, August.
    21. MATHUR Sameer & DEWANI Prem Prakash, 2015. "Market Entry, Product Quality And Price Competition," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 10(2), pages 62-82, August.

    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:jpbect:v:19:y:2017:i:4:p:860-874. 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/apettea.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.