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Resale price maintenance and manufacturer competition for retail services

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  • Hunold, Matthias
  • Muthers, Johannes

Abstract

We investigate the incentives of manufacturers to use resale price maintenance (RPM) when selling products through common retailers. In our model retailers provide product specific pre-sales services. If the competitive retail margins are low, each manufacturer fixes a minimum price to induce favorable retail services. With symmetric manufacturers, products are equally profitable in equilibrium and no product is favored as without RPM, but retail prices are higher. We show that minimum RPM can create a prisoner's dilemma for manufacturers without increasing, and possibly even decreasing the overall service quality. This challenges the service argument as an efficiency defense for RPM.

Suggested Citation

  • Hunold, Matthias & Muthers, Johannes, 2012. "Resale price maintenance and manufacturer competition for retail services," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-028, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12028
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Magdalena Helfrich & Fabian Herweg, 2017. "Salience in Retailing: Vertical Restraints on Internet Sales," CESifo Working Paper Series 6615, CESifo.
    2. Matthias Hunold & Johannes Muthers, 2020. "Manufacturer Cartels and Resale Price Maintenance," Economics working papers 2020-06, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    3. Dertwinkel-Kalt, Markus & Wey, Christian, 2023. "Resale price maintenance in a successive monopoly model," DICE Discussion Papers 395, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    4. 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.
    5. Matthias Hunold & Ulrich Laitenberger & Guillaume Thébaudin, 2022. "Bye-box: An Analysis of Non-Promotion on the Amazon Marketplace 03.06.2022," Working Papers hal-04104183, HAL.
    6. Teis Lunde Lømo & Simen A. Ulsaker, 2021. "Lump‐Sum Payments and Retail Services: A Relational Contracting Perspective," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 131-168, March.
    7. Hunold, Matthias, 2020. "Manufacturer Cartels and Resale Price Maintenance," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224645, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Dertwinkel-Kalt, Markus & Köster, Mats, 2020. "Attention to online sales: The role of brand image concerns," DICE Discussion Papers 335, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    9. Marc Bourreau & Germain Gaudin, 2022. "Streaming platform and strategic recommendation bias," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 25-47, February.
    10. Markus Dertwinkel‐Kalt & Mats Köster, 2022. "Attention to online sales: The role of brand image concerns," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 64-89, February.
    11. Holler, Emanuel & Rickert, Dennis, 2022. "How resale price maintenance and loss leading affect upstream cartel stability: Anatomy of a coffee cartel," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. Matthias Hunold & Johannes Muthers, 2023. "Manufacturer Collusion and Resale Price Maintenance," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 197-23, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht.
    13. Maruyama, Masayoshi & Zennyo, Yusuke, 2020. "Platform most-favored-customer clauses and investment incentives," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. 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.
    15. Dertwinkel-Kalt, Markus & Wey, Christian, 2021. "Multi-Product Pricing and Minimum Resale Price Maintenance," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242338, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Helfrich, Magdalena & Herweg, Fabian, 2020. "Context-dependent preferences and retailing: Vertical restraints on internet sales," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Amelia Fletcher & Peter L Ormosi & Rahul Savani, 2023. "Recommender Systems and Supplier Competition on Platforms," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 397-426.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    biased sales advice; common agency; manufacturer dilemma; matching; retail service; RPM; vertical restraints;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • L42 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Vertical Restraints; Resale Price Maintenance; Quantity Discounts

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