IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpio/0506009.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Minimum Quality Standards and Equilibrium Selection with Asymmetric Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Bonroy

    (CRÉA, Laval University)

  • Christos Constantatos

    (University of Macedonia)

Abstract

In a vertically differentiated market with cost asymmetries, the risk dominance criterion selects the equilibrium where the high quality is produced by the efficient firm. We show that a sufficiently high Minimum Quality Standard reverses equilibrium selection. Hence, MQS may be used in order to increase a domestic firm's profit at the expense of a more efficient foreign rival. This produces higher domestic and lower world welfare. Since the protectionist impact of MQS comes through equilibrium targeting rather than directly affecting equilibrium outcomes, it cannot be easily detected.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Bonroy & Christos Constantatos, 2005. "Minimum Quality Standards and Equilibrium Selection with Asymmetric Firms," Industrial Organization 0506009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0506009
    Note: Type of Document - pdf
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/io/papers/0506/0506009.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John C. Harsanyi & Reinhard Selten, 1988. "A General Theory of Equilibrium Selection in Games," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262582384, December.
    2. Giulio Ecchia & Luca Lambertini, 1997. "Minimum Quality Standards and Collusion," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 101-113, March.
    3. Scarpa, Carlo, 1998. "Minimum quality standards with more than two firms1," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 665-676, September.
    4. Das, Satya P. & Donnenfeld, Shabtai, 1989. "Oligopolistic competition and international trade : Quantity and quality restrictions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3-4), pages 299-318, November.
    5. Carlsson, Hans & van Damme, Eric, 1993. "Global Games and Equilibrium Selection," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(5), pages 989-1018, September.
    6. Van Huyck, John B & Battalio, Raymond C & Beil, Richard O, 1990. "Tacit Coordination Games, Strategic Uncertainty, and Coordination Failure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 234-248, March.
    7. Herguera, Inigo & Kujal, Praveen & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2002. "Tariffs, quality reversals and exit in vertically differentiated industries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 467-492, December.
    8. Motta, Massimo, 1993. "Endogenous Quality Choice: Price vs. Quantity Competition," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 113-131, June.
    9. Motta, Massimo & Thisse, Jacques-Francois & Cabrales, Antonio, 1997. "On the Persistence of Leadership or Leapfrogging in International Trade," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(4), pages 809-824, November.
    10. Boom, Anette, 1995. "Asymmetric International Minimum Quality Standards and Vertical Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 101-119, March.
    11. Iñigo Herguera & Stefan Lutz, 1998. "Oligopoly and Quality Leapfrogging," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 75-94, January.
    12. Cabrales, Antonio & Garcia-Fontes, Walter & Motta, Massimo, 2000. "Risk dominance selects the leader: An experimental analysis," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 137-162, January.
    13. Nicolas Boccard & Xavier Wauthy, 2005. "Enforcing Domestic Quality Dominance through Quotas," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 250-261, May.
    14. Valletti, Tommaso M, 2000. "Minimum Quality Standards under Cournot Competition," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 235-245, November.
    15. Naoto Jinji & Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2004. "Minimum Quality Standards under Asymmetric Duopoly with Endogenous Quality Ordering: A Note," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 189-199, September.
    16. Fischer, Ronald & Serra, Pablo, 2000. "Standards and protection," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 377-400, December.
    17. Ecchia, Giulio & Lambertini, Luca, 1997. "Minimum Quality Standards and Collusion," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 101-113, March.
    18. Zhou, Dongsheng & Spencer, Barbara J. & Vertinsky, Ilan, 2002. "Strategic trade policy with endogenous choice of quality and asymmetric costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 205-232, January.
    19. Uri Ronnen, 1991. "Minimum Quality Standards, Fixed Costs, and Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(4), pages 490-504, Winter.
    20. Moraga-Gonzalez, Jose Luis & Viaene, Jean-Marie, 2005. "Trade policy and quality leadership in transition economies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 359-385, February.
    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. Mario Pezzino, 2010. "Minimum Quality Standards with More Than Two Firms Under Cournot Competition," The IUP Journal of Managerial Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(3), pages 26-45, August.

    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. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz & Stefan Lutz, 2010. "Pre-emption, Predation, and Minimum Quality Standards," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 111-123.
    2. S Lutz, 2005. "Regulatory Standards Can Lead to Predation," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0509, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    3. Olivier Bonroy, 2006. "Le standard de qualité minimale est-il un instrument socialement optimal ?. Une revue de littérature," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(1), pages 35-53.
    4. Dimitra Petropoulou, 2008. "International Trade, Minimum Quality Standards and the Prisoners' Dilemma," CEP Discussion Papers dp0858, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Stefan Lutz & Mario Pezzino, 2012. "International Strategic Choice of Minimum Quality Standards and Welfare," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 594-613, July.
    6. Stefan Napel & Gunnar Oldehaver, 2011. "A dynamic perspective on minimum quality standards under Cournot competition," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 29-49, February.
    7. Pei‐Cheng Liao, 2008. "A Note On Market Coverage In Vertical Differentiation Models With Fixed Costs," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 27-44, January.
    8. Annette Hofmann & Gunnar Oldehaver, 2016. "Vertically Linked Industries, Product Quality and Minimum Quality Standards," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 17(1), pages 92-103, February.
    9. Morita, Hodaka & Nguyen, Xuan, 2021. "FDI and quality-enhancing technology spillovers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Dimitra Petropoulou, 2013. "Vertical product differentiation, minimum quality standards, and international trade," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 65(2), pages 372-393, April.
    11. Stefan Lutz & Mario Pezzino, 2010. "Mixed oligopoly, vertical product differentiation and fixed qualitydependent costs," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1015, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    12. Stefan Napel & Gunnar Oldehaver, 2007. "Static Costs vs. Dynamic Benefits of a Minimum Quality Standard under Cournot Competition," Discussion Papers 23, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    13. Sang-Ho Lee & Ram Kumar Phuyal, 2013. "Strategic Entry Deterrence by Limiting Qualities under Minimum Quality Standards," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 64(4), pages 550-563, December.
    14. José Luis Moraga-González & Jean-Marie Viaene, 2004. "Anti-Dumping, Intra-Industry Trade and Quality Reversals," CESifo Working Paper Series 1365, CESifo.
    15. Berardino Cesi, 2010. "Mergers under endogenous minimum quality standard: a note," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(4), pages 3260-3266.
    16. Werner Smolny, 2003. "Determinants of innovation behaviour and investment estimates for west-german manufacturing firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(5), pages 449-463.
    17. Garella, Paolo G. & Lambertini, Luca, 2014. "Bidimensional vertical differentiation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 1-10.
    18. Bonroy, Olivier, 2003. "Minimum Quality Standard and Protectionism," Cahiers de recherche 0302, GREEN.
    19. Min Chen & Konstantinos Serfes, 2012. "Minimum quality standard regulation under imperfect quality observability," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 269-291, April.
    20. Birg, Laura & Voßwinkel, Jan S., 2015. "Minimum quality standards and non-compliance," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 228, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Vertical product differentiation; Minimum quality standards; Equilibrium selection; Protectionism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    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:wpa:wuwpio:0506009. 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: EconWPA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de .

    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.