IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aug/augsbe/0196.html

Emergence of Electronic Markets: Implication of Declining Transport Costs on Firm Profits and Consumer Surplus

Author

Abstract

Electronic coordination may drastically reduce transport costs, especially for digital or digitalizable products where local markets may actually shrink to a point in space. In the present paper we use a model with differentiated products to analyze the impact of declining transport costs on profits and consumer surplus. While consumers always gain, the effect on producers depends on the degree of product differentiation and the magnitude of transport costs in the electronic market mode. Profits do only rise if products are substantially differentiated – in this case the positive effect of an extended consumer base due to the preference for product differentiation dominates the negative effect of intensified competition. This result is amplified if transport costs in the electronic market mode are substantial. In this case profits only increase if products are almost independent.

Suggested Citation

  • Karl Morasch & Peter Welzel, 2000. "Emergence of Electronic Markets: Implication of Declining Transport Costs on Firm Profits and Consumer Surplus," Discussion Paper Series 196, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:aug:augsbe:0196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/files/71265/196.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Spence, 1976. "Product Selection, Fixed Costs, and Monopolistic Competition," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(2), pages 217-235.
    2. Bouckaert, Jan, 2000. "Monopolistic competition with a mail order business," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 303-310, March.
    3. Vives, Xavier, 1985. "On the efficiency of Bertrand and Cournot equilibria with product differentation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 166-175, June.
    4. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    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. Martin Bandulet, 2002. "Strategic Impacts of Technology Switch-Over: Who Benefits from Electronic Commerce?," Discussion Paper Series 221, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    2. Karl Morasch & Martin Bandulet, 2011. "Sharing the Market or Getting Closer for a Fight? Strategic Reaction to Reduced Trade Costs," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 709-737, September.
    3. Karl Morasch & Martin Bandulet, 2001. "Incentives to Invest in Electronic Coordination: Under- or Overinvestment in Equilibrium?," Discussion Paper Series 200, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.

    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. Karl Morasch & Martin Bandulet, 2011. "Sharing the Market or Getting Closer for a Fight? Strategic Reaction to Reduced Trade Costs," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 709-737, September.
    2. Marc Escrihuela-Villar & Jorge Guillén, 2025. "On Cournot and Bertrand competition in collusive mixed oligopolies," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 231-246, April.
    3. J. Peter Neary, 2002. "Globalisation and market structure," Working Papers 200220, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    4. Choné, Philippe & Linnemer, Laurent, 2020. "Linear demand systems for differentiated goods: Overview and user’s guide," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Karl Morasch & Martin Bandulet, 2001. "Incentives to Invest in Electronic Coordination: Under- or Overinvestment in Equilibrium?," Discussion Paper Series 200, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    6. de Groot, Henri L. F. & Nahuis, Richard, 1998. "Taste for diversity and the optimality of economic growth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 291-295, March.
    7. Leslie Reinhorn, 2012. "Optimal taxation with monopolistic competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(2), pages 216-236, April.
    8. Raphael Bergoeing & Timothy J. Kehoe, "undated". "Trade Theory and Trade Facts," ILADES-UAH Working Papers inv129, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business.
    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. repec:dgr:rugsom:99c19 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Scatasta, Sara & Wesseler, Justus & Hobbs, Jill E., 2005. "The Impact of Labeling Practices on Perceived Quality of GM Food Products: A Revealed Preferences Approach," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24599, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Boyan Jovanovic, 1993. "The Diversification of Production," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 24(1 Microec), pages 197-247.
    13. Horvath, Michael, 2000. "Sectoral shocks and aggregate fluctuations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 69-106, February.
    14. Kurt A. Hafner, 2013. "Agglomeration economies and clustering -- evidence from German and European firms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(20), pages 2938-2953, July.
    15. Javier Coto‐Martínez & María D. C. García‐Alonso & Paul Levine, 2009. "Taste For Variety And Optimum Product Diversity In An Open Economy," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 127-138, April.
    16. Sokullu, Senay, 2023. "More Is Better, Or Not? An Empirical Analysis of Buyer Preferences for Variety on the E-Market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 450-470.
    17. Joseph F. Francois & Douglas Nelson, 2002. "A Geometry Of Specialisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(481), pages 649-678, July.
    18. Rey, Patrick & Salant, David, 2012. "Abuse of dominance and licensing of intellectual property," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 518-527.
    19. Shon M. Ferguson, 2015. "Endogenous Product Differentiation, Market Size and Prices," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 45-61, February.
    20. Bettendorf, Leon J.H. & Heijdra, Ben J., 1999. "Intergenerational and international welfare leakages of a tariff in a small open economy," CCSO Working Papers 199910, University of Groningen, CCSO Centre for Economic Research.
    21. Lawrence J. White, 1985. "Resale Price Maintenance And The Problem Of Marginal And Inframarginal Customers," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 3(3), pages 17-21, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L52 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods

    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:aug:augsbe:0196. 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: Dr. Simone Raab-Kratzmeier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ivaugde.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.