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Price-Quality Competition in a Mixed Duopoly

Author

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  • Klumpp, Tilman

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

  • Su, Xuejuan

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

Abstract

We examine competition between a private and a public provider in markets for "merit goods" such as education, healthcare, housing, recreation, or culture. The private firm provides a high-price/high-quality variety of the good and serves richer individuals, while the public firm provides a low-price/low-quality variety and serves poorer individuals. We first characterize the private competitor's best response to changes in the public firm's price and quality. This enables us to examine the distributional effects of government policies aimed at enhancing access to publicly provided goods, and of changes to the government's budget constraint that make publicly provided goods more expensive or decrease their quality. We then derive the government's optimal provision policy, taking the private response into consideration. Our results have implications for the financing of publicly provided goods, and for whether additional resources, if available, should be spent on reducing the price or enhancing the quality of these goods.

Suggested Citation

  • Klumpp, Tilman & Su, Xuejuan, 2018. "Price-Quality Competition in a Mixed Duopoly," Working Papers 2018-5, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:albaec:2018_005
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    File URL: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~econwps/2018/wp2018-05.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Motta, Massimo, 1993. "Endogenous Quality Choice: Price vs. Quantity Competition," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 113-131, June.
    2. Ulrich Lehmann-Grube, 1997. "Strategic Choice of Quality When Quality is Costly: The Persistence of the High-Quality Advantage," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(2), pages 372-384, Summer.
    3. Victor R. Fuchs, 1996. "Individual and Social Responsibility: Child Care, Education, Medical Care, and Long-Term Care in America," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number fuch96-1.
    4. Ishida, Junichiro & Matsushima, Noriaki, 2009. "Should civil servants be restricted in wage bargaining? A mixed-duopoly approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 634-646, April.
    5. Fuchs, Victor R. (ed.), 1996. "Individual and Social Responsibility," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226267869, August.
    6. repec:wly:soecon:v:81:2:y:2014:p:457-473 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. James M. Poterba, 1996. "Government Intervention in the Markets for Education and Health Care: How and Why?," NBER Chapters, in: Individual and Social Responsibility: Child Care, Education, Medical Care, and Long-Term Care in America, pages 277-308, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Choi, Chong Ju & Shin, Hyun Song, 1992. "A Comment on a Model of Vertical Product Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 229-231, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ashantha Ranasinghe & Xuejuan Su, 2023. "When social assistance meets market power: A mixed duopoly view of health insurance in the United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 851-869, October.
    2. Junichi Haraguchi & Toshihiro Matsumura, 2020. "Endogenous public and private leadership with diverging social and private marginal costs," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(5), pages 699-730, September.
    3. Rune Stenbacka & Mihkel Tombak, 2020. "University‐firm competition in basic research and university funding policy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(4), pages 1017-1040, August.
    4. Kolpin, Van & Stater, Mark, 2024. "The perverse equilibrium effects of state and federal student aid in higher education," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 679-691.
    5. Iwan Bos & Ronald Peeters, 2023. "Price Competition in a Vertizontally Differentiated Duopoly," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 62(3), pages 219-239, May.
    6. Rabah Amir & Evangelia Chalioti & Christine Halmenschlager, 2021. "University–firm competition in basic research: Simultaneous versus sequential moves," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(6), pages 1199-1219, December.
    7. Ziad R. Ghandour, 2019. "Public-Private Competition in Regulated Markets," NIPE Working Papers 02/2019, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mixed duopoly; quality differentiation; public provision of private goods; crowding-out/in; funding of public services; distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets
    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General
    • L38 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Public Policy

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