IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulb/ulbeco/2013-1689.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Product lines and price discrimination in the European car market

Author

Listed:
  • Victor Ginsburgh
  • Shlomo Weber

Abstract

In this paper we consider a model of oligopolistic competition where firms make a two-dimensional product line decision. They choose a location in style space, thus inducing horizontal differentiation, and produce different qualities (a product line) of a given good (vertical differentiation), consumed by a population of customers who differ in their income and preference for style. We prove the existence of a non-cooperative equilibrium and show that, as the degree of competition increases, prices approach marginal cost. The approach is used to show that European car producers seem indeed to use product lines to discriminate across EU countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2002. "Product lines and price discrimination in the European car market," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/1689, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/1689
    Note: FLWIN
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/1689/1/vg-0021.pdf
    File Function: vg-0021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilbert, Richard J & Matutes, Carmen, 1993. "Product Line Rivalry with Brand Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 223-240, September.
    2. Brander, James A & Eaton, Jonathan, 1984. "Product Line Rivalry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 323-334, June.
    3. Victor Ginsburgh & Geneviève Vanhamme, 1989. "Price Differences in the EC Car Market. Some Further Results," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 15-16, pages 137-149.
    4. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
    5. Goldberg, Pinelopi Koujianou, 1995. "Product Differentiation and Oligopoly in International Markets: The Case of the U.S. Automobile Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 891-951, July.
    6. Horstmann, Ignatius & Slivinski, Alan, 1985. "Location models as models of product choice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 367-386, August.
    7. Mertens, Yves & Ginsburgh, Victor, 1985. "Product Differentiation and Price Discrimination in the European Community: The Case of Automobiles," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 151-166, December.
    8. repec:adr:anecst:y:1989:i:15-16:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Steven Berry & James Levinsohn & Ariel Pakes, 2004. "Differentiated Products Demand Systems from a Combination of Micro and Macro Data: The New Car Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(1), pages 68-105, February.
    10. Jaskold Gabszewicz, J. & Thisse, J. -F., 1979. "Price competition, quality and income disparities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 340-359, June.
    11. Victor Ginsburgh & Yves Mertens, 1985. "Product differentiation and discrimination in the European Community: the case of automobiles," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/1755, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    13. Novshek, William, 1980. "Equilibrium in simple spatial (or differentiated product) models," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 313-326, April.
    14. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-890, July.
    15. Frank Verboven, 1996. "International Price Discrimination in the European Car Market," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(2), pages 240-268, Summer.
    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. Sílvia Jorge & Cesaltina Pires, 2004. "Delivered versus Mill Nonlinear Pricing in Free Entry Markets," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 22, Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial, Universidade de Aveiro.
    2. José A. Novo‐Peteiro, 2023. "Product design with attribute dependence," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 91(4), pages 361-385, July.
    3. Dvir, Eyal & Strasser, Georg, 2018. "Does marketing widen borders? Cross-country price dispersion in the European car market," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 134-149.
    4. Gianpaolo Rossini & Paolo Zanghieri, 2008. "What Drives Price Differentials of Consumables in Europe? Size? Affluence? Or Both?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 121-134, February.

    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. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    2. Manez, J.A. & Waterson, M., 2001. "Multiproduct Firms and Product Differentiation: a Survey," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 594, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    3. Goldberg, P.K. & Verboven, F.L., 1999. "The Evolution of Price Discrimination in the European Car Market," Other publications TiSEM 78ee9b01-2794-4a7b-9147-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Frank Verboven, 2001. "The Evolution of Price Dispersion in the European Car Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 68(4), pages 811-848.
    5. Dvir, Eyal & Strasser, Georg, 2018. "Does marketing widen borders? Cross-country price dispersion in the European car market," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 134-149.
    6. Mayer, Thierry & Head, Keith, 2021. "Poor Substitutes? Counterfactual methods in IO and Trade compared," CEPR Discussion Papers 16762, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Pablo Fajgelbaum & Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2011. "Income Distribution, Product Quality, and International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(4), pages 721-765.
    8. Justin P. Johnson & David P. Myatt, 2003. "Multiproduct Quality Competition: Fighting Brands and Product Line Pruning," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 748-774, June.
    9. Andrew Metrick & Richard Zeckhauser, 1996. "Price Versus Quanitity: Market Cleaning Mechanisms When Sellers Differ in Quality," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1775, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    10. Steven T. Berry & Philip A. Haile, 2014. "Identification in Differentiated Products Markets Using Market Level Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 1749-1797, September.
    11. Devin Garcia & Levent Kutlu & Robin C. Sickles, 2022. "Market Structures in Production Economics," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 13, pages 537-574, Springer.
    12. De Fraja, Giovanni, 1996. "Product line competition in vertically differentiated markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 389-414, May.
    13. Marco Guerzoni & Rene Soellner, 2013. "Uniqueness Seeking and Demand Estimation in the German Automobile Industry," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 3(2), pages 179-199, December.
    14. Justin P. Johnson & David P. Myatt, 2006. "Multiproduct Cournot oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 583-601, September.
    15. Gross, Dominique M. & Schmitt, Nicolas, 2000. "Exchange rate pass-through and dynamic oligopoly: an empirical investigation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 89-112, October.
    16. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    17. Lavoie, Nathalie, 2001. "Price Discrimination In The Context Of Vertical Differentiation: A Modeling Approach For Wheat Exports," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20603, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Verboven, Frank, 1999. "The Markets for Gasoline and Diesel Cars in Europe," CEPR Discussion Papers 2069, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Guillaume Gaulier & Séverine Haller, 2000. "The Convergence of Automobile Prices in the European Union: an Empirical Analysis for the Period 1993-1999," Working Papers 2000-14, CEPII research center.
    20. Guofang Huang, 2020. "When to haggle, when to hold firm? Lessons from the used‐car retail market," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 579-604, July.

    More about this item

    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:ulb:ulbeco:2013/1689. 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: Benoit Pauwels (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecsulbe.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.