IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/yon/wpaper/2026rwp-282.html

Price Parity Clauses and Platform Investments

Author

Listed:
  • Jong-Hee Hahn

    (Yonsei University)

  • Seongkyun Kim

    (Software Policy & Research Institute)

Abstract

This paper investigates the welfare effects of price parity (most-favored-nation, MFN) clauses in platform markets characterized by cross-platform investment externalities. Although price parity clauses can reduce fee competition and elevate retail prices, they may also improve efficiency by incentivizing platforms to increase demand-enhancing investments. Using a representative consumer model, we demonstrate that under conditions of substantial investment leakage and moderate marginal investment costs, the efficiency gains from enhanced investment can outweigh the negative impact of higher prices. We derive sufficient conditions under which platform profits, consumer surplus, and overall social welfare are all increased by the presence of price parity clauses. The stronger the platform competition, the greater the likelihood that price parity clauses will reduce consumer welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Jong-Hee Hahn & Seongkyun Kim, 2026. "Price Parity Clauses and Platform Investments," Working papers 2026rwp-282, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:yon:wpaper:2026rwp-282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://121.254.254.220/repec/yon/wpaper/2026rwp-282.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlotta Mariotto & Marianne Verdier, 2020. "Platform–merchant competition for sales services," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 834-853, October.
    2. Chengsi Wang & Julian Wright, 2020. "Search platforms: showrooming and price parity clauses," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(1), pages 32-58, March.
    3. Johansen, Bjørn Olav & Vergé, Thibaud, 2017. "Platform price parity clauses with direct sales," Working Papers in Economics 01/17, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    4. Bisceglia, Michele & Padilla, Jorge & Piccolo, Salvatore, 2021. "When prohibiting wholesale price-parity agreements may harm consumers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Justin P. Johnson, 2017. "The Agency Model and MFN Clauses," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(3), pages 1151-1185.
    6. Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen & Bjørn Olav Johansen, 2017. "Resale Price Maintenance with Secret Contracts and Retail Service Externalities," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 63-87, February.
    7. Carlotta Mariotto & Marianne Verdier, 2020. "Platform merchant competition for sales services," Post-Print hal-04129350, HAL.
    8. Maruyama, Masayoshi & Zennyo, Yusuke, 2020. "Platform most-favored-customer clauses and investment incentives," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Wals, Francisca & Schinkel, Maarten Pieter, 2018. "Platform monopolization by narrow-PPC-BPG combination: Booking et al," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 572-589.
    10. Dennis W. Carlton & Ralph A. Winter, 2018. "Vertical Most-Favored-Nation Restraints and Credit Card No-Surcharge Rules," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(2), pages 215-251.
    11. Andre Boik & Kenneth S. Corts, 2016. "The Effects of Platform Most-Favored-Nation Clauses on Competition and Entry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(1), pages 105-134.
    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. Jong-Hee Hahn & Seongkyun Kim, 2026. "Platform MFN Clauses and Complementary Services," Working papers 2026rwp-281, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.
    2. Martin Peitz, 2024. "The Economic Theory of Two-Sided Platforms," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_584, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    3. Sviták, Jan & Tichem, Jan & Haasbeek, Stefan, 2021. "Price effects of search advertising restrictions," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Andrea Mantovani & Claudio Piga & Carlo Reggiani, 2019. "Much ado about nothing? Online platform price parity clauses and the EU Booking.com case," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1909, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    5. Maruyama, Masayoshi & Zennyo, Yusuke, 2020. "Platform most-favored-customer clauses and investment incentives," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Morgane Cure & Matthias Hunold & Reinhold Kesler & Ulrich Laitenberger & Thomas Larrieu, 2022. "Vertical integration of platforms and product prominence," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 353-395, December.
    7. Sean Ennis & Marc Ivaldi & Vicente Lagos, 2023. "Price-Parity Clauses for Hotel Room Booking: Empirical Evidence from Regulatory Change," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(2), pages 309-331.
    8. Jack (Peiyao) Ma & Andrea Mantovani & Carlo Reggiani & Annette Broocks & Néstor Duch-Brown, 2024. "The Price Effects of Prohibiting Price Parity Clauses: Evidence from International Hotel Groups," Economics Series Working Papers 1043, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    9. Mantovani, Andrea & Reggiani, Carlo & Broocks, Annette & Duch-Brown, Nestor & Ma, Peiyao, 2022. "The Price Effects of Banning Price Parity Clauses in the EU: Evidence from International Hotel Groups," TSE Working Papers 22-1371, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    10. Bisceglia, Michele & Padilla, Jorge & Piccolo, Salvatore, 2021. "When prohibiting wholesale price-parity agreements may harm consumers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    11. Michele Bisceglia & Jorge Padilla, 2023. "On sellers' cooperation in hybrid marketplaces," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 207-222, January.
    12. Enache, Andreea & Rhodes, Andrew, 2025. "Price Parity Clauses and platform data acquisition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    13. Kittaka, Yuta & Matsushima, Noriaki & Saruta, Fuyuki, 2022. "Negative effect of price-matching policy on traditional retailers in a dual-channel supply chain with different content formats," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    14. Mantovani, Andrea & Piga, Claudio A. & Reggiani, Carlo, 2021. "Online platform price parity clauses: Evidence from the EU Booking.com case," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Joan Calzada & Ester Manna & Andrea Mantovani, 2022. "Platform price parity clauses and market segmentation," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 609-637, August.
    16. Matthias Hunold & Reinhold Kesler & Ulrich Laitenberger, 2020. "Rankings of Online Travel Agents, Channel Pricing, and Consumer Protection," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 92-116, January.
    17. Chengsi Wang & Julian Wright, 2023. "Platform Investment and price parity clauses," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 538-569, June.
    18. Michele Bisceglia & Jorge Padilla & Salvatore Piccolo, 2019. "When Prohibiting Platform Parity Agreements Harms Consumers," CSEF Working Papers 542, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    19. Carlotta Mariotto & Marianne Verdier, 2020. "Platform–merchant competition for sales services," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 834-853, October.
    20. Mark J. Tremblay, 2020. "The Limits of Marketplace Fee Discrimination," Working Papers 20-10, NET Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies
    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty

    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:yon:wpaper:2026rwp-282. 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: YERI (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eryonkr.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.