IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v49y2005i5p1105-1124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Shopping hours and price competition

Author

Listed:
  • Inderst, Roman
  • Irmen, Andreas

Abstract

This Paper develops an argument explaining why retail prices may rise in response to the deregulation of opening hours. We make this point in a model of imperfect duopolistic competition. In a deregulated market retailers view the choice of opening hours as a means to increase the degree of perceived product differentiation thus relaxing price competition. If the opportunity costs of the time spent on shopping are sufficiently high the equilibrium configuration has asymmetric shopping hours where one retailer stays open for longer than the other does. Both retailers charge higher prices than under regulation, and both are strictly better off.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Inderst, Roman & Irmen, Andreas, 2005. "Shopping hours and price competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 1105-1124, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:49:y:2005:i:5:p:1105-1124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014-2921(03)00104-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Morrison, Steven A & Newman, Robert J, 1983. "Hours of Operation Restrictions and Competition among Retail Firms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(1), pages 107-114, January.
    2. Gilbert, Richard J & Matutes, Carmen, 1993. "Product Line Rivalry with Brand Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 223-240, September.
    3. Inderst, Roman & Irmen, Andreas, 2005. "Shopping hours and price competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 1105-1124, July.
    4. Ben-Akiva, Moshe & de Palma, Andre & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 1989. "Spatial competition with differentiated products," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 5-19, February.
    5. Kosfeld, Michael, 2002. "Why shops close again: An evolutionary perspective on the deregulation of shopping hours," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 51-72, January.
    6. Paul Klemperer & A. Jorge Padilla, 1997. "Do Firms' Product Lines Include Too Many Varieties?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(3), pages 472-488, Autumn.
    7. Jack High (ed.), 2001. "Competition," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1751.
    8. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    9. de Meza, David, 1984. "The Fourth Commandment: Is it Pareto Efficient?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(374), pages 379-383, June.
    10. Economides, Nicholas, 1989. "Quality variations and maximal variety differentiation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 21-29, February.
    11. Clemenz, Gerhard, 1990. "Non-sequential consumer search and the consequences of a deregulation of trading hours," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1323-1337, November.
    12. Kay, J A & Morris, C N, 1987. "The Economic Efficiency of Sunday Trading Restrictions," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 113-129, December.
    13. Neven, D. & Thisse, J-F., 1989. "On Quality And Variety Competition," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1989020, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    14. Tabuchi, Takatoshi, 1994. "Two-stage two-dimensional spatial competition between two firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 207-227, April.
    15. Gerhard CLEMENZ, 1990. "Competition Via Shopping Hours: A Case For Regulation?," Vienna Economics Papers vie9005, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    16. Raymond Gradus, 1996. "The economic effects of extending shop opening hours," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 247-263, October.
    17. Tanguay, Georges & Vallee, Luc & Lanoie, Paul, 1995. "Shopping Hours and Price Levels in the Retailing Industry: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(3), pages 516-524, July.
    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. Elbert Dijkgraaf & Raymond Gradus, 2007. "Explaining Sunday Shop Policies," De Economist, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 207-219, June.
    2. Tobias Wenzel, 2010. "Liberalization of Opening Hours with Free Entry," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11, pages 511-526, November.
    3. Shy, Oz & Stenbacka, Rune, 2006. "Service hours with asymmetric distributions of ideal service time," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 763-771, July.
    4. Tobias Wenzel, 2010. "Liberalization of Opening Hours with Free Entry," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(4), pages 511-526, November.
    5. Kosfeld, Michael, 2002. "Why shops close again: An evolutionary perspective on the deregulation of shopping hours," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 51-72, January.
    6. Yamada, Mai, 2014. "Opening Hours, Store Quality, and Social Welfare," MPRA Paper 84105, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Nov 2017.
    7. Yamada, Mai, 2014. "Opening Hours, Store Quality, and Social Welfare," MPRA Paper 84172, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 24 Jan 2018.
    8. Mai Yamada, 2019. "Business Hours, Store Quality, and Social Welfare," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 465-478, September.
    9. Svetoslav Danchev & Christos Genakos, 2015. "Evaluating the Impact of Sunday Trading Deregulation," CEP Discussion Papers dp1336, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Yamada, Mai, 2020. "The Regulation Level of Business Hours," MPRA Paper 101392, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Skuterud, Mikal, 2005. "The impact of Sunday shopping on employment and hours of work in the retail industry: Evidence from Canada," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 1953-1978, November.
    12. Raymond Gradus, 1996. "The economic effects of extending shop opening hours," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 247-263, October.
    13. Yamada, Mai, 2014. "Opening Hours and Quality Choices," MPRA Paper 56066, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Oz Shy & Rune Stenbacka, 2008. "Price Competition, Business Hours and Shopping Time Flexibility," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(531), pages 1171-1195, August.
    15. Vitor Miguel Ribeiro, 2014. "Establishing a link between behavior ecconomics and two-sided markets," FEP Working Papers 538, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    16. Samuel Haas & Daniel Herold & Jan T. Schäfer, 2020. "Shopping Hours and Entry - an Empirical Analysis of Aldi’s Opening Hours," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 139-156, March.
    17. Samuel de Haas & Daniel Herold & Jan T. Schaefer, 2017. "Shopping hours and entry - An empirical analysis of Aldi's opening hours," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201751, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    18. Miguel Flores, 2011. "24/7," Discussion Papers in Economics 11/51, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    19. Michael C Burda & Philippe Weil, 2004. "Blue Laws," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01065499, HAL.
    20. Habte, Osmis, 2017. "Opening Hours Decision and Competition in the Motor Vehicle Inspection Market," Working Papers 2017:20, Lund University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

    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:eee:eecrev:v:49:y:2005:i:5:p:1105-1124. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eer .

    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.