IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v50y2004i12p1646-1659.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reduced Quality and an Unlevel Playing Field Could Make Consumers Happier

Author

Listed:
  • Nahum D. Melumad

    (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, 3022 Broadway, New York, New York 10027-6902)

  • Amir Ziv

    (Arison School of Business, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC), Kanfai Nesharim Street, Herzliya, 46150 Israel)

Abstract

We study a model of imperfect competition and limited production capacity in which a key feature is the trade-off between quality and quantity. In particular, lowering product quality enables firms to increase total production. We illustrate that, in the presence of limited capacity, the choice of lower quality often results in increased social welfare. We also explore the relation between the extent of competition and the choice of quality. We find that, in some cases, reduced competition leads to increased production, decreased average quality, increased total welfare, and makes consumers better off. Finally, we consider the possibility of regulator-mandated quality standards. Imposing high-quality standards never improves welfare in our model. On the other hand, mandating an upper bound on quality could either increase or decrease welfare in either a monopoly or a duopoly market.

Suggested Citation

  • Nahum D. Melumad & Amir Ziv, 2004. "Reduced Quality and an Unlevel Playing Field Could Make Consumers Happier," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(12), pages 1646-1659, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:50:y:2004:i:12:p:1646-1659
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1040.0277
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0277
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0277?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. Leland, Hayne E, 1977. "Quality Choice and Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 127-137, March.
    2. Sunder, S, 1983. "Simpson Reversal Paradox And Cost Allocation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 222-233.
    3. Levin, Dan, 1990. "Horizontal Mergers: The 50-Percent Benchmark," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1238-1245, December.
    4. Stanley Baiman & Paul E. Fischer & Madhav V. Rajan, 2000. "Information, Contracting, and Quality Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(6), pages 776-789, June.
    5. Leland, Hayne E, 1979. "Quacks, Lemons, and Licensing: A Theory of Minimum Quality Standards," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1328-1346, December.
    6. Koenigsberg, Ernest, 1980. "Uncertainty, Capacity, and Market Share in Oligopoly: A Stochastic Theory of Product Quality," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 151-164, April.
    7. Perry, Martin K & Porter, Robert H, 1985. "Oligopoly and the Incentive for Horizontal Merger," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 219-227, March.
    8. De Vany, Arthur S & Saving, Thomas R, 1983. "The Economics of Quality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(6), pages 979-1000, December.
    9. Leffler, Keith B, 1982. "Ambiguous Changes in Product Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 956-967, December.
    10. A. Michael Spence, 1975. "Monopoly, Quality, and Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(2), pages 417-429, Autumn.
    11. Terwiesch, Christian & E. Bohn, Roger, 2001. "Learning and process improvement during production ramp-up," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-19, March.
    12. Curry, B & George, K D, 1983. "Industrial Concentration: A Survey," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 203-255, March.
    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. Chen, You-hua & Huang, Sun-jun & Mishra, Ashok K. & Wang, X. Henry, 2018. "Effects of input capacity constraints on food quality and regulation mechanism design for food safety management," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 385(C), pages 89-95.
    2. Antelo, Manel & Bru, Lluís, 2022. "Product licensing in a Stackelberg industry," MPRA Paper 113985, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kejia Hu & Sunil Chopra & Yuche Chen, 2021. "The Effect of Tightening Standards on Automakers’ Non‐compliance," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(9), pages 3094-3115, September.
    4. Antelo, Manel & Bru, Lluís, 2023. "Licensing a product innovation in a Cournot industry," MPRA Paper 116631, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Li, Dong & Nagurney, Anna, 2015. "A general multitiered supply chain network model of quality competition with suppliers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PA), pages 336-356.
    2. Anna Nagurney & Dong Li, 2014. "Equilibria and dynamics of supply chain network competition with information asymmetry in quality and minimum quality standards," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 285-315, July.
    3. Ramón Faulí-Oller & Joel Sandonís, 2001. "To Merge Or To License: Implications For Competition Policy," Working Papers. Serie AD 2001-05, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    4. Jonathan B. Berk & Jules H. Van Binsbergen, 2022. "Regulation of Charlatans in High‐Skill Professions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 1219-1258, April.
    5. Chen, Jiawei, 2009. "The effects of mergers with dynamic capacity accumulation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 92-109, January.
    6. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2004. "The incentives for takeover in oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1067-1089, November.
    7. Qiu, Hong & Zhu, Nan & Peng, Qiyuan, 2021. "Can a small fish become a big fish? Modeling leader-generating mergers in a Stackelberg market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Chen, Jingxian & Liang, Liang & Yang, Feng, 2015. "Cooperative quality investment in outsourcing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 174-191.
    10. Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Sorgard, Lars, 1997. "Merger and product range rivalry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 21-42, November.
    11. Justin P. Johnson & Andrew Rhodes, 2021. "Multiproduct mergers and quality competition," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 633-661, September.
    12. Paul J. Gertler, 1985. "A Decomposition of the Elasticity of Medicaid Nursing Home Expenditures Into Price, Quality, and Quantity Effects," NBER Working Papers 1751, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Rosato, Antonio, 2008. "“Matching Auctions” for Hostile Takeovers: A Model with Endogenous Target," MPRA Paper 15083, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Jan 2009.
    14. Ulus Aysegul & Yildiz Halis M., 2012. "On the Relationship between Tariff Levels and the Nature of Mergers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-40, December.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2007_017 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Georg Meran & Reimund Schwarze, 2010. "Can minimum prices assure the quality of professional services?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 171-199, October.
    17. Elodie Rouviere & Raphael Soubeyran, 2011. "Competition vs. quality in an industry with imperfect traceability," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(4), pages 3052-3067.
    18. Verboven, Frank, 1995. "Corporate restructuring in a collusive oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 335-354, September.
    19. Buehler, Benno & Schuett, Florian, 2014. "Certification and minimum quality standards when some consumers are uninformed," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 493-511.
    20. Karla M. Johnstone & Jean C. Bedard & Michael L. Ettredge, 2004. "The Effect of Competitive Bidding on Engagement Planning and Pricing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(1), pages 25-53, March.
    21. Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2017. "Merger Paradox in a Network Product Market: A Horizontally Differentiated Three-Firm Model," Discussion Paper Series 167, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Sep 2017.

    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:inm:ormnsc:v:50:y:2004:i:12:p:1646-1659. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.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.