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Market Concentration and Product Variety under Spatial Competition: Evidence from Retail Gasoline

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  • Georg Götz
  • Klaus Gugler

Abstract

We show that for a spatially differentiated economy reduced product variety is the likely outcome of mergers except in cases where exit costs in relation to (outlet specific) fixed costs are high. Our empirical analysis of the Austrian retail gasoline market confirms that increases in concentration reduce product variety. Ignoring this product variety effect is likely to lead to an underestimate of market power in structural merger analysis. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006

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  • Georg Götz & Klaus Gugler, 2006. "Market Concentration and Product Variety under Spatial Competition: Evidence from Retail Gasoline," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 225-234, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jincot:v:6:y:2006:i:3:p:225-234
    DOI: 10.1007/s10842-006-0025-z
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    1. Gerhard Clemenz & Klaus Gugler, 2009. "Locational choice and price competition: some empirical results for the austrian retail gasoline market," Studies in Empirical Economics, in: Giuseppe Arbia & Badi H. Baltagi (ed.), Spatial Econometrics, pages 223-244, Springer.
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    11. Steven T. Berry & Joel Waldfogel, 2001. "Do Mergers Increase Product Variety? Evidence from Radio Broadcasting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 1009-1025.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cosnita-Langlais, Andreea, 2012. "Horizontal market concentration: Theoretical insights from spatial models," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 22-32.
    2. Chrysovalantou Milliou & Joel Sandonis, 2018. "Manufacturer Mergers and Product Variety in Vertically Related Markets," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-24, March.
    3. Elena Argentesi & Paolo Buccirossi & Roberto Cervone & Tomaso Duso & Alessia Marrazzo, 2018. "Price or Variety? An Evaluation of Mergers Effects in Grocery Retailing," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1734, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Franco Mariuzzo & Patrick Paul Walsh & Ciara Whelan, 2004. "EU Merger Control in Differentiated Product Industries," CESifo Working Paper Series 1312, CESifo.
    5. Argentesi, Elena & Buccirossi, Paolo & Cervone, Roberto & Duso, Tomaso & Marrazzo, Alessia, 2021. "The effect of mergers on variety in grocery retailing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Pennerstorfer, Dieter & Weiss, Christoph, 2013. "Spatial clustering and market power: Evidence from the retail gasoline market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 661-675.
    7. Andrew Eckert & Heather Eckert, 2014. "Regional Patterns in Gasoline Station Rationalization in Canada," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 99-122, March.
    8. Genakos, Christos & Kretschmer, Tobias & Nicolle, Ambre, 2021. "Strategic confusopoly: evidence from the UK mobile market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113835, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Adriana Nikolic & Christoph Weiss, 2014. "Spatial interactions in location decisions: Empirical evidence from a Bayesian spatial probit model," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp177, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    10. Ralph Siebert, 2016. "The Impact of Horizontal Mergers on Market Structure: Evidence from the Semiconductor Industry," CESifo Working Paper Series 5911, CESifo.
    11. Argentesi, Elena & Buccirossi, Paolo & Cervone, Roberto & Duso, Tomaso & Marrazzo, Alessia, 2021. "The effect of mergers on variety in grocery retailing," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 79, pages 1-19.
    12. Wesley Blundell & Kyle Wilson, 2023. "Acquisitions, product variety, and distribution in the U.S. craft beer industry," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 1053-1076, October.
    13. Ewa, Lechman, 2010. "Concentration in ICTs sector – cross country analysis," MPRA Paper 37488, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Argentesi, Elena & Buccirossi, Paolo & Cervone, Roberto & Duso, Tomaso & Marrazzo, Alessia, 2016. "The effect of retail mergers on prices and variety: An ex-post evaluation," DICE Discussion Papers 225, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    15. Chiang-Ming Chen & Chia-Yu Yeh & Jin-Li Hu, 2011. "Influence of Uncertain Demand on Product Variety: Evidence from the International Tourist Hotel Industry in Taiwan," Tourism Economics, , vol. 17(6), pages 1275-1285, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    spatial product differentiation; retail gasoline; mergers; concentration; L11; L13; L90;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L90 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - General

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