IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/metroe/v74y2023i3p478-494.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vertical shareholding, vertical product differentiation and social welfare

Author

Listed:
  • Xingtang Wang
  • Leonard F. S. Wang

Abstract

A vertically related market with vertical product differentiation is used to analyze the impact of vertical cross‐ownership on industry profit, consumer surplus and social welfare. With forward cross‐ownership, we find that when the upstream firm holds the share of the low‐quality downstream firm, the industry profit is increasing (decreasing) in the cross‐ownership if the product quality difference is large (small). When the upstream firm holds the share of the high‐quality downstream firm, the industry profit is increasing in the cross‐ownership. The cross‐ownership will lead to a higher consumer surplus and social welfare no matter the type of vertical cross‐ownership. We also consider the scenario that the upstream firm holds the share of both downstream firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Xingtang Wang & Leonard F. S. Wang, 2023. "Vertical shareholding, vertical product differentiation and social welfare," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 478-494, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:metroe:v:74:y:2023:i:3:p:478-494
    DOI: 10.1111/meca.12424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/meca.12424
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/meca.12424?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Masahiko Hattori & Yasuhito Tanaka, 2018. "Vertical differentiation in oligopoly and license fees when outside innovator can enter the market: Two†step auction," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 347-365, May.
    2. Wang, Xingtang & Wang, Leonard F.S., 2021. "Vertical product differentiation, managerial delegation and social welfare in a vertically-related market," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 149-159.
    3. Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2020. "Overlapping ownership, endogenous quality, and welfare," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Leonardos, Stefanos & Petrakis, Emmanuel & Skartados, Panagiotis & Stamatopoulos, Giorgos, 2021. "Partial passive ownership holdings and licensing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    5. Ángel L. López & Xavier Vives, 2019. "Overlapping Ownership, R&D Spillovers, and Antitrust Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(5), pages 2394-2437.
    6. Vives, Xavier, 2020. "Common ownership, market power, and innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Hongkun Ma & Chenhang Zeng, 2022. "The effects of optimal cross holding in an asymmetric oligopoly," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 1053-1066, October.
    8. Xingtang Wang & Leonard F. S. Wang, 2022. "Corporate cannibalism in an oligopolistic market," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 18(3), pages 402-417, September.
    9. Joseph Farrell & Carl Shapiro, 1990. "Asset Ownership and Market Structure in Oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(2), pages 275-292, Summer.
    10. Fanti, Luciano, 2016. "Social welfare and cross-ownership in a vertical industry: When the mode of competition matters for antitrust policy," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 8-16.
    11. Giulia Ceccantoni & Ornella Tarola & Cecilia Vergari, 2022. "Tax and pollution in a vertically differentiated duopoly: when consumers matter," Working Papers 3/22, Sapienza University of Rome, DISS.
    12. Oz Shy & Rune Stenbacka, 2020. "Common ownership, institutional investors, and welfare," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 706-723, July.
    13. Reynolds, Robert J. & Snapp, Bruce R., 1986. "The competitive effects of partial equity interests and joint ventures," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 141-153, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ji Sun & Leonard F. S. Wang, 2023. "Vertical cross‐ownership, input price discrimination, and social welfare," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(2), pages 290-308, June.
    2. Arijit Mukherjee, 2023. "Losses from cross-holdings in a duopoly with convex cost and strategic input price determination," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 11(1), pages 81-91, April.
    3. Li, Youping & Zhang, Jianhu & Zhou, Zipeng, 2023. "Vertical differentiation with overlapping ownership," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    4. Heijnen, Pim & Schoonbeek, Lambert, 2020. "Cross-shareholdings and competition in a rent-seeking contest," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Samuel Haas & Johannes Paha, 2021. "Non-Controlling Minority Shareholdings and Collusion," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 58(3), pages 431-454, May.
    6. Hirose, Kosuke & Matsumura, Toshihiro, 2023. "Green transformation in oligopoly markets under common ownership," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    7. Jie Shuai & Mengyuan Xia & Chenhang Zeng, 2023. "Upstream market structure and downstream partial ownership," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 22-47, January.
    8. José Azar & Xavier Vives, 2021. "General Equilibrium Oligopoly and Ownership Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(3), pages 999-1048, May.
    9. Zormpas, Dimitrios & Ruble, Richard, 2021. "The dynamics of preemptive and follower investments with overlapping ownership," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    10. Moreno, Diego & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2022. "The impact on market outcomes of the portfolio selection of large equity investors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    11. Bárcena-Ruiz, Juan Carlos & Campo, María Luz, 2017. "Taxes versus standards under cross-ownership," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 36-50.
    12. Sven Heim & Kai Hhschelrath & Ulrich Laitenberger & Yossi Spiegel, 2017. "Minority Share Acquisitions and Collusion: Evidence from the Introduction of National Leniency Programs," Working Papers hal-01952937, HAL.
    13. Liu, Yi & Matsumura, Toshihiro, 2022. "Welfare effects of common ownership in an international duopoly," MPRA Paper 115177, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Dong, Quan & Chang, Yang-Ming, 2020. "Emission taxes vs. environmental standards under partial ownership arrangements," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 250-262.
    15. Bayona, Anna & López, Ángel L. & Manganelli, Anton-Giulio, 2022. "Common ownership, corporate control and price competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1066-1075.
    16. Hirose, Kosuke & Matsumura, Toshihiro, 2022. "Common ownership and environmental Corporate Social Responsibility," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    17. Dai, Miao & Benchekroun, Hassan & Long, Ngo Van, 2022. "On the profitability of cross-ownership in Cournot nonrenewable resource oligopolies: Stock size matters," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    18. Jianxia Yang & Chenhang Zeng, 2021. "Collusive stability of cross-holding with cost asymmetry," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 91(4), pages 549-566, November.
    19. Lili Xu & Yidan Zhang & Sang‐Ho Lee, 2024. "Effects of partial passive ownership in a successive endogenous timing game with R&D spillovers," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 283-297, January.
    20. Leonardos, Stefanos & Petrakis, Emmanuel & Skartados, Panagiotis & Stamatopoulos, Giorgos, 2021. "Partial passive ownership holdings and licensing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).

    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:metroe:v:74:y:2023:i:3:p:478-494. 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: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0026-1386 .

    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.