IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/10793.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Welfare E ects of Endogenous Quality Choice in Cable Television Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Crawford, Gregory
  • Shcherbakov, Oleksandr
  • Shum, Matthew

Abstract

We measure the welfare consequences of endogenous quality choice in imperfectly competitive markets. We introduce the concept of a "quality markup" and measure the relative welfare consequences of market power over price and quality. For U.S. paidtelevision markets during 1997†2006, we find that not only are cable monopolists' prices 33% to 74% higher than marginal costs, but qualities are also 23% to 55% higher than socially optimal and the welfare costs of each are similar in magnitude. Such evidence for "quality inflation" by monopolists is at odds with classic results in the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Crawford, Gregory & Shcherbakov, Oleksandr & Shum, Matthew, 2015. "The Welfare E ects of Endogenous Quality Choice in Cable Television Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 10793, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10793
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP10793
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chenghuan Sean Chu, 2010. "The effect of satellite entry on cable television prices and product quality," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(4), pages 730-764, December.
    2. Gregory S. Crawford & Robin S. Lee & Michael D. Whinston & Ali Yurukoglu, 2018. "The Welfare Effects of Vertical Integration in Multichannel Television Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(3), pages 891-954, May.
    3. Clerides, Sofronis K., 2002. "Book value: intertemporal pricing and quality discrimination in the US market for books," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(10), pages 1385-1408, December.
    4. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous product choice: A progress report," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 315-320.
    5. Ying Fan, 2013. "Ownership Consolidation and Product Characteristics: A Study of the US Daily Newspaper Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1598-1628, August.
    6. Nevo, Aviv, 2001. "Measuring Market Power in the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 307-342, March.
    7. Gregory S. Crawford & Ali Yurukoglu, 2012. "The Welfare Effects of Bundling in Multichannel Television Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 643-685, April.
    8. Brian McManus, 2007. "Nonlinear pricing in an oligopoly market: the case of specialty coffee," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(2), pages 512-532, June.
    9. Gregory S. Crawford, 2000. "The Impact of the 1992 Cable Act on Household Demand and Welfare," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(3), pages 422-450, Autumn.
    10. Berry, Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1993. "Some Applications and Limitations of Recent Advances in Empirical Industrial Organization: Merger Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 247-252, May.
    11. Jean-Charles Rochet & Lars A. Stole, 2002. "Nonlinear Pricing with Random Participation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(1), pages 277-311.
    12. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    13. Andrew Sweeting, 2013. "Dynamic Product Positioning in Differentiated Product Markets: The Effect of Fees for Musical Performance Rights on the Commercial Radio Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(5), pages 1763-1803, September.
    14. Steven T. Berry, 1994. "Estimating Discrete-Choice Models of Product Differentiation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(2), pages 242-262, Summer.
    15. Crawford, Gregory S & Shum, Matthew, 2007. "Monopoly Quality Degradation and Regulation in Cable Television," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 181-219, February.
    16. Ackerberg, Daniel & Caves, Kevin & Frazer, Garth, 2006. "Structural identification of production functions," MPRA Paper 38349, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    18. Austan Goolsbee & Amil Petrin, 2004. "The Consumer Gains from Direct Broadcast Satellites and the Competition with Cable TV," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(2), pages 351-381, March.
    19. Amil Petrin, 2002. "Quantifying the Benefits of New Products: The Case of the Minivan," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(4), pages 705-729, August.
    20. Michaela Draganska & Michael Mazzeo & Katja Seim, 2009. "Beyond plain vanilla: Modeling joint product assortment and pricing decisions," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 105-146, June.
    21. David P.Byrne, 2011. "Consolidation and Price Discrimination in the Cable Television Industry," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1118, The University of Melbourne.
    22. A. Michael Spence, 1975. "Monopoly, Quality, and Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(2), pages 417-429, Autumn.
    23. Alon Eizenberg, 2014. "Upstream Innovation and Product Variety in the U.S. Home PC Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(3), pages 1003-1045.
    24. Steven T. Berry & Joel Waldfogel, 2001. "Do Mergers Increase Product Variety? Evidence from Radio Broadcasting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 1009-1025.
    25. Frank Verboven, 2002. "Quality-Based Price Discrimination and Tax Incidence: Evidence from Gasoline and Diesel Cars," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(2), pages 275-297, Summer.
    26. Andrew Sweeting, 2010. "The effects of mergers on product positioning: evidence from the music radio industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(2), pages 372-397, June.
    27. Thomas W. Hazlett & Matthew L. Spitzer, 1997. "Public Policy toward Cable Television," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 53139, September.
    28. Gregory Crawford, 2008. "The discriminatory incentives to bundle in the cable television industry," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 41-78, March.
    29. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous Product Choice: A Progress Report," Economic Research Papers 270745, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    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. Ying Fan & Chenyu Yang, 2020. "Competition, Product Proliferation, and Welfare: A Study of the US Smartphone Market," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 99-134, May.
    2. Chenghuan Sean Chu, 2010. "The effect of satellite entry on cable television prices and product quality," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(4), pages 730-764, December.
    3. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous product choice: A progress report," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 315-320.
    4. Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Dennis A. Yao, 2018. "Integrated Strategy: Residual Market and Exchange Imperfections as the Foundation of Sustainable Competitive Advantage," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 463-480, June.
    5. Ying Fan, 2013. "Ownership Consolidation and Product Characteristics: A Study of the US Daily Newspaper Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1598-1628, August.
    6. Serna, Natalia & Riascos, Álvaro J. & Martin, Juan David, 2019. "Welfare effects of switching barriers through permanence clauses: Evidence from the mobiles market in Colombia," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 310-323.
    7. Yanhao Wei, 2014. "Network Effects of Air Travel Demand, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 14-041, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 17 Nov 2014.
    8. Marco A. Marini, 2018. "Collusive agreements in vertically differentiated markets," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume II, chapter 3, pages 34-56, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Yanhao Wei, 2014. "The Network Effects of Air-Travel Demand," PIER Working Paper Archive 14-027, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    10. Eizenberg, Alon & Chatain, Olivier, 2015. "Demand Fluctuations, Capacity Constraints and Repeated Interaction: An Empirical Analysis of Service Quality Adjustments," CEPR Discussion Papers 10545, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. 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.
    12. Hidalgo, Julian & Oviedo, Juan D., 2014. "The impact of Broadband quality standards on Internet services market structure in Colombia," 25th European Regional ITS Conference, Brussels 2014 101435, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    13. Hongmin Li & Scott Webster & Gwangjae Yu, 2020. "Product Design Under Multinomial Logit Choices: Optimization of Quality and Prices in an Evolving Product Line," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1011-1025, September.
    14. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous Product Choice: A Progress Report," Economic Research Papers 270745, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    15. Gerlach, Heiko & Zheng, Xuemei, 2018. "Preferences for green electricity, investment and regulatory incentives," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 430-441.
    16. Gregory S. Crawford, 2015. "The economics of television and online video markets," ECON - Working Papers 197, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    17. Juan Daniel Oviedo & Julian Hidalgo, 2014. "The impact of broadband quality standards on Internet services market structure In colombia," Documentos de Trabajo 12232, Universidad del Rosario.
    18. Bauner, Christoph & Wang, Emily, 2019. "The effect of competition on pricing and product positioning: Evidence from wholesale club entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Crawford, Gregory, 2015. "The Economics of Television and Online Video Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 10676, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Gabszewicz, Jean J. & Marini, Marco A. & Tarola, Ornella, 2015. "Endogenous Mergers in Vertically Differentiated Markets," MPRA Paper 68318, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Gregory S. Crawford & Oleksandr Shcherbakov & Matthew Shum, 2015. "The welfare effects of endogenous quality choice in cable television markets," ECON - Working Papers 202, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    2. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous product choice: A progress report," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 315-320.
    3. Victor Aguirregabiria & Margaret Slade, 2017. "Empirical models of firms and industries," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1445-1488, December.
    4. David P. Byrne & Susumu Imai & Vasilis Sarafidis & Masayuki Hirukawa, 2015. "Instrument-free Identification and Estimation of Differentiated Products Models," Working Paper Series 26, Economics Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    5. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous Product Choice: A Progress Report," Economic Research Papers 270745, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    6. David P. Byrne, 2015. "Testing Models Of Differentiated Products Markets: Consolidation In The Cable Tv Industry," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(3), pages 805-850, August.
    7. Crawford, Gregory S & Shum, Matthew, 2007. "Monopoly Quality Degradation and Regulation in Cable Television," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 181-219, February.
    8. Ying Fan & Chenyu Yang, 2020. "Competition, Product Proliferation, and Welfare: A Study of the US Smartphone Market," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 99-134, May.
    9. Mitsukuni Nishida, 2015. "Estimating a Model of Strategic Network Choice: The Convenience-Store Industry in Okinawa," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 20-38, January.
    10. Justin P. Johnson & Andrew Rhodes, 2021. "Multiproduct mergers and quality competition," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 633-661, September.
    11. Byrne, D. P. & Imai, S. & Jain, N. & Sarafidis, V. & Hirukawa, M., 2020. "Identification and Estimation of Differentiated Products Models using Cost Data," Working Papers 15/05, Department of Economics, City University London.
    12. Steven T. Berry & Philip A. Haile, 2014. "Identification in Differentiated Products Markets Using Market Level Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(5), pages 1749-1797, September.
    13. Gregory S. Crawford & Ali Yurukoglu, 2012. "The Welfare Effects of Bundling in Multichannel Television Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 643-685, April.
    14. Xuan Teng, 2022. "Self-Preferencing, Quality Provision, and Welfare in Mobile Application Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 10042, CESifo.
    15. Federico Rossi, 2023. "Mergers with endogenous product choice: The case of the ready-to-eat cereal industry," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-64, March.
    16. Christos Genakos & Andreas Lamprinidis & James Walker, 2023. "Evaluating merger effects," CEP Discussion Papers dp1921, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    17. A. Yeşim Orhun & Sriram Venkataraman & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2016. "Impact of Competition on Product Decisions: Movie Choices of Exhibitors," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 73-92, January.
    18. Hickman, William & Mortimer, Julie Holland, 2016. "Demand Estimation with Availability Variation," SocArXiv qe69j, Center for Open Science.
    19. Steven Berry & Alon Eizenberg & Joel Waldfogel, 2016. "Optimal product variety in radio markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(3), pages 463-497, August.
    20. Miravete, Eugenio & Moral, Maria & Thurk, Jeff, 2015. "Innovation, Emissions Policy, and Competitive Advantage in the Diffusion of European Diesel Automobiles," CEPR Discussion Papers 10783, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Welfare; Imperfect competition; Monopoly; Endogenous quality; Industrial organization; Cable television; Quality markup; quality distortions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications

    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:cpr:ceprdp:10793. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.