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Buyer power and quality improvements

Author Info

  • Battigalli, Pierpaolo
  • Fumagalli, Chiara
  • Polo, Michele

Abstract

This paper analyses the sources of buyer power and its effect on sellers’ investment in quality improvements. In our model retailers make take-it-or-leave-it offers to a producer and each of them obtains its marginal contribution to total profits (gross of sunk costs). In turn, this depends on the rivalry between retailers in the bargaining process. Rivalry increases when retailers are less differentiated and when decreasing returns to scale in production are larger. The allocation of total surplus affects the incentives of the producer to invest in product quality, an instance of the hold-up problem. An increase in buyer power not only makes the supplier and consumers worse off, but it may even harm retailers, that obtain a larger share of a smaller surplus. A repeated game argument shows that efficient quality improvements can be supported as an equilibrium outcome if the producer and retailers are involved in a long-term relationship.

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Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Research in Economics.

Volume (Year): 61 (2007)
Issue (Month): 2 (June)
Pages: 45-61

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Handle: RePEc:eee:reecon:v:61:y:2007:i:2:p:45-61
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622941

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
  • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies

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Cited by:

  1. Battigalli, Pierpaolo & Fumagalli, Chiara & Polo, Michele, 2006. "Buyer Power and Quality Improvements," CEPR Discussion Papers 5814, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. von Schlippenbach, Vanessa & Teichmann, Isabel, 2012. "The strategic use of private quality standards in food supply chains," DICE Discussion Papers 62, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), University of Düsseldorf.
  3. Noriaki Matsushima & Ryusuke Shinohara, 2011. "What factors determine the number of trading partners?," ISER Discussion Paper 0808, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
  4. E. Bacchiega & O. Bonroy, 2012. "Vertical relations and number of channels in quality-differentiated markets," Working Papers wp823, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
  5. Pio Baake & Vanessa von Schlippenbach, 2010. "Quality Distortions in Vertical Relations," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 968, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  6. Johansen, Bjørn Olav, 2012. "The Buyer Power Of Multiproduct Retailers: Competition With One-Stop Shopping," Working Papers in Economics 03/12, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
  7. Inderst, Roman, 2007. "Leveraging buyer power," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 908-924, October.
  8. Özlem Bedre-Defolie & Stéphane Caprice, 2011. "Merger efficiency and welfare implications of buyer power," ESMT Research Working Papers ESMT-11-07, ESMT European School of Management and Technology.
  9. Eliana Viviano & Luciana Aimone Gigio & Emanuela Ciapanna & Daniele Coin & Fabrizio Colonna & Federica Lagna & Raffaele Santioni, 2012. "The retail trade sector and the food industry in Italy," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 119, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
  10. Inderst, Roman & Jakubovic, Zlata & Jovanovic, Dragan, 2015. "Buyer Power and Functional Competition for Innovation," MPRA Paper 61214, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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