IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bzn/wpaper/bemps106.html

Some searches may not work properly. We apologize for the inconvenience.

   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Existence of Nash Equilibria in Two-Sided Hotelling Models

Author

Listed:
  • Emanuele Bacchiega

    (Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy)

  • Elias Carroni

    (Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Italy)

  • Alessandro Fedele

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)

Abstract

The Hotelling model is the workhorse for analyzing platform competition in two-sided markets. In this setup, the degree of platform differentiation must be high relative to cross-group benefits to eschew the alleged non-existence of Nash equilibria. The present paper shows instead that Nash equilibria exist even for relatively low differentiation; at such equilibria, platforms avoid competition by replicating a collusive outcome. This result widens our knowledge of the two-sided Hotelling model and is relevant for a large array of markets --especially digital ones-- where platforms operate in relatively low-differentiation environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Emanuele Bacchiega & Elias Carroni & Alessandro Fedele, 2024. "On the Existence of Nash Equilibria in Two-Sided Hotelling Models," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS106, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    • Handle: RePEc:bzn:wpaper:bemps106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.unibz.it/bemps106.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alessandro FEDELE & Sara DE PEDRI, 2016. "In Medio Stat Virtus: Does A Mixed Economy Increase Welfare?," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 87(3), pages 345-363, December.
    2. Patrick Rey & Jean Tirole, 2019. "Price Caps as Welfare-Enhancing Coopetition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(6), pages 3018-3069.
    3. Caillaud, Bernard & Jullien, Bruno, 2003. "Chicken & Egg: Competition among Intermediation Service Providers," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(2), pages 309-328, Summer.
    4. Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2013. "Piracy in a two-sided software market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 78-89.
    5. Andrei Hagiu, 2006. "Pricing and Commitment by Two-Sided Platforms," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 720-737, Autumn.
    6. 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.
    7. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    8. Simon Cowan & Xiangkang Yin, 2008. "Competition Can Harm Consumers," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 264-271, September.
    9. Mérel Pierre R & Sexton Richard J., 2010. "Kinked-Demand Equilibria and Weak Duopoly in the Hotelling Model of Horizontal Differentiation," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, April.
    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. Emanuele Bacchiega & Elias Carroni & Alessandro Fedele, 2023. "Monopolistic Duopoly," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS101, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    2. Thomes, Tim Paul, 2015. "In-house publishing and competition in the video game industry," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 46-57.
    3. Heiko Karle & Martin Peitz & Markus Reisinger, 2020. "Segmentation versus Agglomeration: Competition between Platforms with Competitive Sellers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(6), pages 2329-2374.
    4. Etro, Federico, 2023. "Platform competition with free entry of sellers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Huixin Liu & Feng Du, 2023. "Research on E-Commerce Platforms’ Return Policies Considering Consumers Abusing Return Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2015. "The impact of piracy on prominent and non-prominent software developers," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 735-744.
    7. Tremblay, Mark J. & Adachi, Takanori & Sato, Susumu, 2023. "Cournot platform competition with mixed-homing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Rolf Golombek & Michael Hoel & Snorre Kverndokk & Stefano Ninfole & Knut Einar Rosendahl & Michael Olaf Hoel, 2024. "Competition for Carbon Storage," CESifo Working Paper Series 11052, CESifo.
    9. Alexandre de Corniere, 2013. "Search Advertising," Economics Series Working Papers 649, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    10. Hanna Hałaburda & Yaron Yehezkel, 2016. "The Role of Coordination Bias in Platform Competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 274-312, April.
    11. Claude Crampes & Carole Haritchabalet & Bruno Jullien, 2009. "Advertising, Competition And Entry In Media Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 7-31, March.
    12. 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.
    13. Pinar Ozcan & Filipe M. Santos, 2015. "The market that never was: Turf wars and failed alliances in mobile payments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(10), pages 1486-1512, October.
    14. Yannis Bakos & Hanna Halaburda, 2022. "Overcoming the Coordination Problem in New Marketplaces via Cryptographic Tokens," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 1368-1385, December.
    15. Cumbul, Eray & Virág, Gábor, 2018. "Multilateral limit pricing in price-setting games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 250-273.
    16. Mark J. Tremblay, 2019. "Platform Competition and Endogenous Switching Costs," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 537-559, December.
    17. Hui Li & Qiaowei Shen & Yakov Bart, 2018. "Local Market Characteristics and Online-to-Offline Commerce: An Empirical Analysis of Groupon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1860-1878, April.
    18. Doh-Shin Jeon & Nikrooz Nasr, 2016. "News Aggregators and Competition among Newspapers on the Internet," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 91-114, November.
    19. Pierre ANDREOLETTI & Pierre GAZE & Maxime MENUET, 2015. "Can a Platform Make Profit with Consumers' Mobility? A Two-Sided Monopoly Model with Random Endogenous Side-Switching," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 1969, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    20. Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen & Bjørn Olav Johansen & Teis Lunde Lømo, 2018. "Resale Price Maintenance In Two‐Sided Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(3), pages 570-609, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hotelling model; Platform competition; Two-sided markets; Equilibrium existence.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory

    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:bzn:wpaper:bemps106. 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: F. Marta L. Di Lascio or Alessandro Fedele (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feubzit.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.