The Competitive Effects of Resale Price Maintenance

Oligopoly price discrimination and resale price maintenance

Oligopoly price discrimination in the retail market prevents a manufacturer from inducing optimal retail margins through any wholesale price. This motivates the manufacturer to impose resale price maintenance. In a model of third-degree price discrimination by rival retailers, a retail price ceiling (or floor) enables the manufacturer to restore the first best. Imposing a fixed retail price is ...

Resale Price Maintenance and Collusion

The paper revisits the conventional wisdom according to which vertical restrictions on retail prices help upstream firms to collude. We analyze the scope for collusion with and without resale price maintenance (RPM) when retailers observe local shocks on demand or retail costs. In the absence of RPM, retail prices react to retailers’ information and deviations from collusive behavior are thus d...

Exclusionary Minimum Resale Price Maintenance∗

An upstream manufacturer can use minimum resale price maintenance (RPM) to exclude potential competitors. RPM lets the incumbent manufacturer transfer profits to retailers. If entry is accommodated by retailers, upstream competition leads to fierce downstream competition and the breakdown of RPM. Thus, via RPM, retailers internalize the effect of accommodating entry on the incumbent’s profits. ...

Does the Service Argument Justify Resale Price Maintenance?

Proponents of RPM argue that RPM helps to sustain a high level of service at the point of sale and that such a high level is efficient. This paper provides a simple model which leads to the following conclusions: 1) RPM may increase or decrease the level of service. 2) Whether the service level is more efficient under RPM does not depend on the fact that service increases due to RPM. It may be ...

The Link Between Purchase Delay and Resale Price Maintenance: Using The Real Options Approach