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Monopolistic Competition, As You Like It

Author

Listed:
  • Paolo Bertoletti

    (Department of Economics and Management, University Of Pavia)

  • Federico Etro

    (Department of Economics, University Of Venice CÃ Foscari)

Abstract

We study imperfect and monopolistic competition with asymmetric preferences over a variety of goods provided by heterogeneous firms. We show how to compute equilibria through the Morishima elasticities of substitution. Simple pricing rules and closed-form solutions emerge under monopolistic competition when demands depend on common aggregators. This is the case for Generalized Additively Separable preferences (encompassing additive preferences and their Gorman-Pollak extensions), implicitly additive preferences and others. For applications to trade, with markups variable across goods of different quality, and to macroeconomics, with markups depending on aggregate variables, we propose specifications of indirectly additive, self-dual addilog and implicit CES preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Paolo Bertoletti & Federico Etro, 2017. "Monopolistic Competition, As You Like It," Working Papers 2017:08, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
  • Handle: RePEc:ven:wpaper:2017:08
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Imperfect competition; Monopolistic competition; Asymmetric preferences; Heterogeneous firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

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