IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/umc/wpaper/0701.html

When Do Input Prices Matter For Make-Or-Buy Decisions?

Author

Abstract

We investigate input pricing regimes that induce efficient make-or-buy decisions by entrants when there is constant returns in the production of the input(s) and simultaneous noncooperative price competition in downstream retail markets. A necessary and sufficient condition for efficient make-or-buy decisions is derived. This condition shows that input prices are relevant for make-or-buy decisions except under restrictive and often unverifiable assumptions on the demand structure, and that the least informationally-demanding way to ensure efficient make-or-buy decisions is to price inputs at marginal cost. The extent to which input prices can depart from marginal cost while still inducing efficient make-or-buy decisions depends on the relative efficiency of the incumbent and the demand displacement ratio, with significant departures possible even for modest efficiency differences when products are nearly homogeneous.

Suggested Citation

  • David Mandy, 2007. "When Do Input Prices Matter For Make-Or-Buy Decisions?," Working Papers 0701, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    • Handle: RePEc:umc:wpaper:0701
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jeUNW0SZH1C-dSIo_fzrzx8uEVcr3DIY/view?usp=sharing
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 2001. "Competition in Telecommunications," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262621509, December.
    2. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1994. "Access pricing and competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 1673-1710, December.
    3. Mark Armstrong, 2001. "Access Pricing, Bypass, and Universal Service," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 297-301, May.
    4. Vives, Xavier, 1984. "Duopoly information equilibrium: Cournot and bertrand," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 71-94, October.
    5. Bulow, Jeremy I & Geanakoplos, John D & Klemperer, Paul D, 1985. "Multimarket Oligopoly: Strategic Substitutes and Complements," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(3), pages 488-511, June.
    6. Blank, Larry & Kaserman, David L & Mayo, John W, 1998. "Dominant Firm Pricing with Competitive Entry and Regulation: The Case of IntraLATA Toll," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 35-53, July.
    7. Topkis Donald M., 1995. "Comparative Statics of the Firm," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 370-401, December.
    8. Dixit, Avinash K, 1986. "Comparative Statics for Oligopoly," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 27(1), pages 107-122, February.
    9. Ingo Vogelsang, 2003. "Price Regulation of Access to Telecommunications Networks," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 830-862, September.
    10. Philip Gayle & Dennis Weisman, 2007. "Are input prices irrelevant for make-or-buy decisions?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 195-207, October.
    11. Armstrong, Mark & Doyle, Chris & Vickers, John, 1996. "The Access Pricing Problem: A Synthesis," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 131-150, June.
    12. Xavier Vives, 2001. "Oligopoly Pricing: Old Ideas and New Tools," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026272040x, December.
    13. David E. M Sappington, 2005. "On the Irrelevance of Input Prices for Make-or-Buy Decisions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1631-1638, December.
    14. Weisman, Dennis L, 1995. "Regulation and the Vertically Integrated Firm: The Case of RBOC Entry into Interlata Long Distance," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 249-266, November.
    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 Mandy, 2009. "Pricing inputs to induce efficient Make-or-Buy decisions," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 29-43, August.
    2. David Mandy & David Sappington, 2007. "Incentives for sabotage in vertically related industries," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 235-260, June.
    3. Joan Calzada & Francesc Trillas, 2005. "The interconnection prices in telecomunications: from theory to practice," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 173(2), pages 85-125, June.
    4. Armstrong, Mark & Sappington, David E.M., 2007. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Regulation," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1557-1700, Elsevier.
    5. Lewis, Tracy R. & Sappington, David E. M., 1999. "Access pricing with unregulated downstream competition," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 73-100, March.
    6. Keizo Mizuno & Ichiro Yoshino, 2015. "Overusing a bypass under cost-based access regulation: underinvestment with spillovers," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 29-57, February.
    7. Armstrong, Mark, 2001. "The theory of access pricing and interconnection," MPRA Paper 15608, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Duarte Brito & Markos Tselekounis, 2017. "On the Impact of Input Prices on an Entrant’s Profit Under Multi-Product Competition," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(1), pages 105-125, February.
    9. Tina Kao & Flavio Menezes & John Quiggin, 2014. "Optimal access regulation with downstream competition," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 75-93, February.
    10. Mark Armstrong & David E.M. Sappington, 2006. "Regulation, Competition and Liberalization," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 44(2), pages 325-366, June.
    11. Kenneth Fjell & Øystein Foros & Debashis Pal, 2010. "Endogenous Average Cost Based Access Pricing," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 36(2), pages 149-162, March.
    12. Galetovic Alexander & Sanhueza Ricardo, 2009. "Vertical Mergers and Competition with a Regulated Bottleneck Monopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, October.
    13. Rodney Beard, 2015. "N-Firm Oligopoly With General Iso-Elastic Demand," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 336-345, October.
    14. Inderst, Roman & Peitz, Martin, 2011. "Netzzugang, Wettbewerb und Investitionen," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-025, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Vogelsang, Ingo, 2000. "Regulation of Access to the Telecommunications Network of New Zealand: A Review of the Literature," Working Paper Series 3931, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    16. Seok Yang & Myeonghwan Cho, 2024. "Pricing Third-Party Access to Essential Facilities under Asymmetric Information," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 40, pages 315-348.
    17. Weisman, Dennis L., 2001. "Access pricing and exclusionary behavior," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 121-126, July.
    18. Ricardo GONCALVES & Álvaro NASCIMENTO, 2013. "Next Generation Access Networks: The Post-Investment Conundrum," Communications & Strategies, IDATE, Com&Strat dept., vol. 1(92), pages 91-112, 4th quart.
    19. Joan Calzada, 2007. "Capacity-based versus time-based access charges in telecommunications," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 153-172, October.
    20. David Besanko & Shana Cui, 2019. "Regulated versus negotiated access pricing in vertically separated railway systems," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 1-32, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • L9 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities

    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:umc:wpaper:0701. 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: Chao Gu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edumous.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.