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Firm-specific information, product differentiation, and industry equilibrium

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  • Perloff, Jeffrey M.
  • Salop, Steven

Abstract

Where consumers have imperfect information about specific firms’ prices and lack information about the market, firms have informational market power. In general, improving the consumer’s information about each firm’s price will not necessarily lower average market price. We show, however, that certain types of improvements will lower price. Moreover, a reduction in barriers to entry (e.g., capital costs) will lower price-holding information constant. Where a significant number (but not all) consumers have perfect information, single-price equilibria are impossible.

Suggested Citation

  • Perloff, Jeffrey M. & Salop, Steven, 1985. "Firm-specific information, product differentiation, and industry equilibrium," CUDARE Working Papers 47003, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ucbecw:47003
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.47003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Topolyan, Iryna, 2017. "Price competition when three are few and four are many," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 175-191.
    2. Gladys López-Acevedo, 1997. "Quantal response equilibria for posted offer-markets," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 12(2), pages 95-131.
    3. Kathy Baylis & Jeffrey Perloff, 2002. "Price Dispersion on the Internet: Good Firms and Bad Firms," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 21(3), pages 305-324, November.
    4. Thomas A Abbott III, 1992. "Price Dispersion In U.S. Manufacturing: Implications For The Aggregation Of Products And Firms," Working Papers 92-3, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez & Eduardo M. Medina-Cortina, 2019. "Pass-through and competition: the impact of soft drink taxes as seen through Mexican supermarkets," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-23, December.
    6. Carlton, Dennis W. & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 1989. "The Economics of Information," Research Reports 25156, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center.
    7. Zamani, Omid & Bittmann, Thomas & Loy, Jens-Peter, 2018. "Search costs and cost pass-through: Evidence for the Iranian poultry market," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 119-122.
    8. Muck, Johannes, 2016. "Tariff-mediated network effects with incompletely informed consumers," DICE Discussion Papers 210, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    9. Ran Spiegler, 2006. "The Market for Quacks," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(4), pages 1113-1131.
    10. Kaukin, Andrey (Каукин, Андрей), 2018. "Diagnosis of the Growth Model of the Russian Air Transportation Market: Bottlenecks and Directions of Development [Диагностика Модели Роста Российского Рынка Авиаперевозок: Узкие Места И Направлени," Working Papers 061830, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    11. Wisnicki, Bartlomiej, 2022. "Consumer inertia fosters product quality," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    12. Thomas A Abbott Iii, 1989. "Price Dispersion in U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 89-7, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

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