IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2505.24460.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Frictions and Welfare in Monopolistic Competition

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Del Prato
  • Paolo Zacchia

Abstract

In a heterogeneous firm economy with monopolistic competition, could informational asymmetries between entrepreneurs and financial intermediaries sometimes improve welfare? We study this question by developing a model where banks finance entrepreneurs under asymmetric information. While aggregate productivity decreases with informational frictions, we find that welfare can be maximized at intermediate levels of information asymmetry due to a trade-off between productivity and product variety. Additionally, moderate input cost distortions can improve welfare when financial frictions are severe by offsetting the resulting weak firm selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Del Prato & Paolo Zacchia, 2025. "Frictions and Welfare in Monopolistic Competition," Papers 2505.24460, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2505.24460
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.24460
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francisco J. Buera & Joseph P. Kaboski & Yongseok Shin, 2011. "Finance and Development: A Tale of Two Sectors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1964-2002, August.
    2. Kalina Manova, 2013. "Credit Constraints, Heterogeneous Firms, and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(2), pages 711-744.
    3. Auster, Sarah & Gottardi, Piero, 2024. "Sorting versus screening in decentralized markets with adverse selection," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    4. Florian Unger, 2021. "Credit frictions, selection into external finance and gains from trade," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 1206-1251, November.
    5. Chaney, Thomas, 2016. "Liquidity constrained exporters," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 141-154.
    6. Carlo Altomonte & Domenico Favoino & Tommaso Sonno, 2018. "Markups and Productivity under Heterogeneous Financial Frictions," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 18100, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    7. Lou, Youcheng & Rahi, Rohit, 2023. "Information, market power and welfare," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    8. Benjamin Moll, 2014. "Productivity Losses from Financial Frictions: Can Self-Financing Undo Capital Misallocation?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3186-3221, October.
    9. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5g3sadr9h8gbri8hrtq0h6au2 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. R. G. Lipsey & Kelvin Lancaster, 1956. "The General Theory of Second Best," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 24(1), pages 11-32.
    11. Rahi, Rohit, 2023. "Information, market power and welfare," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120526, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Thomas Chaney, 2016. "Liquidity Constrained Exporters," SciencePo Working papers hal-03389283, HAL.
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5g3sadr9h8gbri8hrtq0h6au2 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Lou, Youcheng & Rahi, Rohit, 2023. "Information, market power and welfare," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120479, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Townsend, Robert M., 1979. "Optimal contracts and competitive markets with costly state verification," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 265-293, October.
    16. Virgiliu Midrigan & Daniel Yi Xu, 2014. "Finance and Misallocation: Evidence from Plant-Level Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 422-458, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. David Kohn & Fernando Leibovici & Michal Szkup, 2023. "No Credit, No Gain: Trade Liberalization Dynamics, Production Inputs, And Financial Development," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(2), pages 809-836, May.
    2. Carsten Eckel & Florian Unger, 2023. "Credit Constraints, Endogenous Innovations, And Price Setting In International Trade," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1715-1747, November.
    3. Priit Jeenas & Josep Pijoan-Mas & Enrique Moral-Benito & Manuel García-Santana & Julian di Giovanni, 2022. "Buy Big or Buy Small? Procurement Policies, Firms' Financing, and the Macroeconomy," Working Papers 1321, Barcelona School of Economics.
    4. Kohn, David & Leibovici, Fernando & Szkup, Michal, 2020. "Financial frictions and export dynamics in large devaluations," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Alvaro Aguirre, 2017. "Contracting Institutions and Economic Growth," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 24, pages 192-217, March.
    6. Harold L. Cole & Jeremy Greenwood & Juan M. Sanchez, 2016. "Why Doesn't Technology Flow From Rich to Poor Countries?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84(4), pages 1477-1521, July.
    7. Julian di Giovanni & Manuel García-Santana & Priit Jeenas & Enrique Moral-Benitoz & Josep Pijoan-Mas, 2022. "Government Procurement and Access to Credit: Firm Dynamics and Aggregate Implications," Working Papers 2233, Banco de España.
    8. Crinò, Rosario & Ogliari, Laura, 2015. "Financial Frictions, Product Quality, and International Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 10555, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Wu, Guiying Laura, 2018. "Capital misallocation in China: Financial frictions or policy distortions?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 203-223.
    10. Andreasen, Eugenia & Bauducco, Sofía & Dardati, Evangelina, 2017. "Capital Controls and Firm Performance: The Effects of the Chilean Encaje," Research Department working papers 1153, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica.
    11. David Kohn & Fernando Leibovici & Michal Szkup, 2021. "Financial Frictions and International Trade," Working Papers 2021-009, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    12. Ek, Chanbora & Wu, Guiying Laura, 2018. "Investment-cash flow sensitivities and capital misallocation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 220-230.
    13. Dabla-Norris, Era & Ji, Yan & Townsend, Robert M. & Filiz Unsal, D., 2021. "Distinguishing constraints on financial inclusion and their impact on GDP, TFP, and the distribution of income," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 1-18.
    14. Pedro Bento & Ashantha Ranasinghe, 2020. "Financial Frictions at Entry, Average Firm Size, and Productivity," Working Papers 2020-7, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    15. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2013. "Misallocation and productivity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, January.
    16. Esposito, Federico & Hassan, Fadi, 2023. "Import Competition, Trade Credit, and Financial Frictions in General Equilibrium," CEPR Discussion Papers 17926, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Ms. Era Dabla-Norris & Yan Ji & Robert M. Townsend & Ms. Filiz D Unsal, 2015. "Identifying Constraints to Financial Inclusion and Their Impact on GDP and Inequality: A Structural Framework for Policy," IMF Working Papers 2015/022, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Kohn, David & Leibovici, Fernando & Szkup, Michal, 2017. "Financial Frictions, Trade, and Misallocation," Research Department working papers 1106, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica.
    19. Crinò, Rosario & Ogliari, Laura, 2017. "Financial imperfections, product quality, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 63-84.
    20. David Kohn & Fernando Leibovici & Michal Szkup, 2019. "Financial Development and Trade Liberalization," 2019 Meeting Papers 1212, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2505.24460. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.