IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jeczfn/v132y2021i2d10.1007_s00712-020-00714-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quality provision under conditions of oligopoly

Author

Listed:
  • Johan Willner

    (Åbo Akademi University)

  • Sonja Grönblom

    (Åbo Akademi University)

Abstract

We analyse a market where quality is reflected in sunk costs and/or marginal costs. Firms provide too low quality as compared to the socially optimal solution whenever quality affects (at least) sunk costs. Entry would then increase welfare, but the number of firms is restricted by an upper limit that depends on how sunk costs and consumer utility are affected by a quality change. Firms may even produce an excessive output if both types of costs are dependent on quality. Moreover, entry reduces quality except for when the number of firms increases from two to three. Quality is on the other hand socially optimal and independent of market structure if only marginal costs are affected by quality, but output is too low unless the number of firms is very high.

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Willner & Sonja Grönblom, 2021. "Quality provision under conditions of oligopoly," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 103-131, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jeczfn:v:132:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s00712-020-00714-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s00712-020-00714-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00712-020-00714-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00712-020-00714-8?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. Ching-to Ma & James Burgess, 1993. "Quality competition, welfare, and regulation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 153-173, June.
    2. Jiang, John N. & Yu, Jun, 2004. "Reliability in Electricity Markets: Another Binding Constraint?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 43-53, June.
    3. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    4. Robert A. Ritz, 2014. "On Welfare Losses Due to Imperfect Competition," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 167-190, March.
    5. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2011. "Hospital Competition and Quality with Regulated Prices," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113(2), pages 444-469, June.
    6. Kurt R. Brekke & Robert Nuscheler & Odd Rune Straume, 2006. "Quality and Location Choices under Price Regulation," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 207-227, March.
    7. Francisco L. Rivera-Batiz & Luis A. Rivera-Batiz, 2018. "Economic Integration and Endogenous Growth," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Francisco L Rivera-Batiz & Luis A Rivera-Batiz (ed.), International Trade, Capital Flows and Economic Development, chapter 1, pages 3-32, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    9. Sonja Grönblom & Johan Willner, 2014. "Organisational form and individual motivation: public ownership, privatisation and fat cats," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 267-284, July.
    10. Esther Gal-Or, 1983. "Quality and Quantity Competition," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 590-600, Autumn.
    11. Belleflamme, Paul & Peitz, Martin, 2014. "Asymmetric information and overinvestment in quality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 127-143.
    12. Steven Berry & Joel Waldfogel, 2010. "Product Quality And Market Size," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 1-31, March.
    13. Willner, Johan, 2001. "Ownership, efficiency, and political interference," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 723-748, November.
    14. Xavier Vives, 2008. "Innovation And Competitive Pressure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 419-469, December.
    15. Lieb-Dóczy, Enese & Börner, Achim-Rüdiger & MacKerron, Gordon, 2003. "Who Secures the Security of Supply? European Perspectives on Security, Competition, and Liability," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(10), pages 10-19, December.
    16. Matsumura, Toshihiro & Matsushima, Noriaki, 2007. "Congestion-reducing investments and economic welfare in a Hotelling model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 161-167, August.
    17. Choi, David Y. & Stack, Martin H., 2005. "The all-American beer: a case of inferior standard (taste) prevailing?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 79-86.
    18. Sonja Grönblom & Johan Willner, 2014. "Organisational form and individual motivation: public ownership, privatisation and fat cats," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 267-284, September.
    19. Rachel E. Kranton, 2003. "Competition and the Incentive to Produce High Quality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 70(279), pages 385-404, August.
    20. Rajiv D. Banker & Inder Khosla & Kingshuk K. Sinha, 1998. "Quality and Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(9), pages 1179-1192, September.
    21. Johan Willner & David Parker, 2007. "The Performance of Public and Private Enterprise under Conditions of Active and Passive Ownership and Competition and Monopoly," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 221-253, April.
    22. Moss, Diana L., 2004. "Competition or Reliability in Electricity? What the Coming Policy Shift Means for Restructuring," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 11-28, March.
    23. Brunekreeft, Gert & Keller, Katja, 2000. "The electricity supply industry in Germany: market power or power of the market?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 15-29, March.
    24. Geroski, P. A., 1995. "What do we know about entry?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 421-440, December.
    25. A. Michael Spence, 1975. "Monopoly, Quality, and Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(2), pages 417-429, Autumn.
    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. Ziad Ghandour & Odd Rune Straume, 2022. "Optimal funding coverage in a mixed oligopoly with quality competition and price regulation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 201-225, August.

    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. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    2. Cellini, Roberto & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2018. "A dynamic model of quality competition with endogenous prices," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 190-206.
    3. Ziad R. Ghandour, 2019. "Public-Private Competition in Regulated Markets," NIPE Working Papers 02/2019, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    4. Sverre Grepperud & Pål Andreas Pedersen, 2020. "Accreditation in regulated markets," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(7), pages 1287-1304, October.
    5. Roberto Cellini & Fabio Lamantia, 2015. "Quality competition in markets with regulated prices and minimum quality standards," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 345-370, April.
    6. Johan WILLNER & Sonja GRÖNBLOM, 2017. "Public Enterprises – Objectives and Performance," Departmental Working Papers 2017-03, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    7. Johan WILLNER & Sonja GRÖNBLOM, 2015. "The Organisation of Services of General Interest in Finland," CIRIEC Working Papers 1520, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    8. A. Yeşim Orhun & Sriram Venkataraman & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2016. "Impact of Competition on Product Decisions: Movie Choices of Exhibitors," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 73-92, January.
    9. Martin Gaynor, "undated". "What Do We Know About Competition and Quality in Health Care Markets?," GSIA Working Papers 2006-E62, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    10. Brekke, Kurt R. & Cellini, Roberto & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Competition and quality in health care markets: A differential-game approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 508-523, July.
    11. Piia Pekola & Ismo Linnosmaa & Hennamari Mikkola, 2017. "Competition and quality in a physiotherapy market with fixed prices," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(1), pages 97-117, January.
    12. Nagurney, Anna & Saberi, Sara & Shukla, Shivani & Floden, Jonas, 2015. "Supply chain network competition in price and quality with multiple manufacturers and freight service providers," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 248-267.
    13. Ngo Van Long & Zhuang Miao, 2020. "Multiple‐quality Cournot oligopoly and the role of market size," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 932-952, October.
    14. Anna Nagurney & Dong Li, 2015. "A supply chain network game theory model with product differentiation, outsourcing of production and distribution, and quality and price competition," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 226(1), pages 479-503, March.
    15. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2018. "Can Competition Reduce Quality?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 174(3), pages 421-447, September.
    16. Horn-In Kuo & Fu-Chuan Lai & K. L. Glen Ueng, 2020. "Privatization neutrality with quality and subsidies," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 405-419, July.
    17. Katz, Michael L., 2013. "Provider competition and healthcare quality: More bang for the buck?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 612-625.
    18. Hamed Markazi Moghadam, 2020. "Price and non-price competition in an oligopoly: an analysis of relative payoff maximizers," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 507-521, April.
    19. Siciliani, Luigi & Rune Straume, Odd & Cellini, Roberto, 2013. "Quality competition with motivated providers and sluggish demand," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 2041-2061.
    20. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Quality competition with profit constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 642-659.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Product quality; Oligopoly; Competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods

    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:kap:jeczfn:v:132:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s00712-020-00714-8. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.