IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/rwirep/92.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Product Variety, Price Elasticity of Demand and Fixed Cost in Spatial Models

Author

Listed:
  • Gu, Yiquan
  • Wenzel, Tobias

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of price-dependent demand in spatial models of product differentiation. We introduce consumers with a quasi-linear utility function in the framework of the Salop (1979) model. We show that the so-called excess entry theorem relies critically on the assumption of completely inelastic demand. Our model is able to produce excessive, insufficient, or optimal product variety. A proof for the existence and uniqueness of symmetric equilibrium when price elasticity of demand is increasing in price is also provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Gu, Yiquan & Wenzel, Tobias, 2009. "Product Variety, Price Elasticity of Demand and Fixed Cost in Spatial Models," Ruhr Economic Papers 92, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:rwirep:92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/26857/1/593499662.PDF
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gu, Yiquan & Wenzel, Tobias, 2009. "A note on the excess entry theorem in spatial models with elastic demand," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 567-571, September.
    2. Anderson, Simon P. & de Palma, Andre, 2000. "From local to global competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 423-448, March.
    3. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    4. Matsumura, Toshihiro & Okamura, Makoto, 2006. "A note on the excess entry theorem in spatial markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 1071-1076, September.
    5. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    6. Simon P. Anderson & Stephen Coate, 2005. "Market Provision of Broadcasting: A Welfare Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 947-972.
    7. Rath, Kali P. & Zhao, Gongyun, 2001. "Two stage equilibrium and product choice with elastic demand," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(9), pages 1441-1455, November.
    8. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    9. Martin Peitz, 2002. "Price equilibrium in address models of product differentiation: unit-elastic demand," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 20(4), pages 849-860.
    10. Martin A. Lariviere & Evan L. Porteus, 2001. "Selling to the Newsvendor: An Analysis of Price-Only Contracts," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 293-305, May.
    11. James W. Friedman & Jacques-Francois Thisse, 1993. "Partial Collusion Fosters Minimum Product Differentiation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(4), pages 631-645, Winter.
    12. Economides, Nicholas, 1989. "Symmetric equilibrium existence and optimality in differentiated product markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 178-194, February.
    13. Serhan Ziya & Hayriye Ayhan & Robert D. Foley, 2004. "Relationships Among Three Assumptions in Revenue Management," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(5), pages 804-809, October.
    14. Mark Armstrong Author-Email: mark.armstrong@ucl.ac.uk Author-Workplace-Name: University College of London, 2006. "Competition in Two-Sided Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, Autumn.
    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. Stühmeier, Torben & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Getting beer during commercials: Adverse effects of ad-avoidance," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 98-106, March.
    2. Gu, Yiquan & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Transparency, price-dependent demand and product variety," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 216-219, March.

    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. repec:zbw:rwirep:0092 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Yiquan Gu & Tobias Wenzel, 2009. "Product Variety, Price Elasticity of Demand and Fixed Cost in Spatial Models," Ruhr Economic Papers 0092, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    3. Gu Yiquan & Wenzel Tobias, 2012. "Price-Dependent Demand in Spatial Models," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, March.
    4. repec:zbw:rwirep:0033 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Gu, Yiquan & Wenzel, Tobias, 2009. "A note on the excess entry theorem in spatial models with elastic demand," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 567-571, September.
    6. Yiquan Gu & Tobias Wenzel, 2007. "A Note on the Excess Entry Theorem in Spatial Models with Elastic Demand," Ruhr Economic Papers 0033, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Yiquan Gu & Alexander Rasch & Tobias Wenzel, 2016. "Price-sensitive demand and market entry," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(4), pages 865-875, November.
    8. González-Maestre, Miguel & Granero, Lluís M., 2020. "Excessive vs. insufficient entry in spatial models: When product design and market size matter," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 27-35.
    9. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, January.
    10. Stühmeier, Torben & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Getting beer during commercials: Adverse effects of ad-avoidance," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 98-106, March.
    11. Schiff, Nathan & Cosman, Jacob & Dai, Tianran, 2023. "Delivery in the city: Differentiated products competition among New York restaurants," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    12. Alwyn Young, 1995. "Growth Without Scale Effects," NBER Working Papers 5211, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Cosman, Jacob & Schiff, Nathan, 2019. "Delivery in the city: evidence on monopolistic competition from New York restaurants," MPRA Paper 96617, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Claude Crampes & Carole Haritchabalet & Bruno Jullien, 2009. "Advertising, Competition And Entry In Media Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 7-31, March.
    15. Tobias Wenzel, 2010. "Liberalization of Opening Hours with Free Entry," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(4), pages 511-526, November.
    16. Brekke, Kurt R. & Garcia Pires, Armando J. & Schindler, Dirk & Schjelderup, Guttorm, 2017. "Capital taxation and imperfect competition: ACE vs. CBIT," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1-15.
    17. Stoneman, Paul, 2011. "Soft Innovation: Economics, Product Aesthetics, and the Creative Industries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199697021, Decembrie.
    18. Richard Schmalensee, 2012. "“On a Level with Dentists?” Reflections on the Evolution of Industrial Organization," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 41(3), pages 157-179, November.
    19. Gu, Yiquan & Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2022. "Consumer salience and quality provision in (un)regulated public service markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    20. Pierre M. Picard & Eric Toulemonde, 2009. "On monopolistic competition and optimal product diversity: workers' rents also matter," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(4), pages 1347-1360, November.
    21. Corchón Luis Carlos & Zudenkova Galina, 2013. "The Welfare Effects of Location and Quality in Oligopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1143-1178, July.
    22. Chad Syverson, 2001. "Output Market Segmentation and Productivity," Working Papers 01-07, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Demand elasticity; spatial models; excess entry theorem;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    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:zbw:rwirep:92. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rwiesde.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.