Vertical Market Structure and Marginalization

An experimental examination of double marginalization and vertical relationships

The presence of a vertical externality, and therefore an incentive to integrate or to impose vertical restraints, is investigated in 11 posted-offer experiments. Upstream markets are characterized by a single seller. When the downstream market consists of three firms, there is no evidence of a vertical externality, and behavior is consistent with the vertically integrated outcome. With a single...

Market Structure and Price Adjustment in the Iranian Tea Market

How to Regulate Vertical Market Structure in Network Industries

This paper analyzes the equilibrium outcomes in a network industry under different vertical market structures. In this industry, an upstreammonopolist operates a network used as an input to produce horizontally differentiated final products that are imperfect substitutes. Three potential drawbacks of market structure regulation are analyzed: (i) double marginalization, (ii) underinvestment, and...

Vertical Integration and Market Foreclosure

Few people would disagree with the proposition that horizontal mergers have the potential to restrict output and raise consumer prices. In contrast, there is much less agreement about the anti-competitive effects of vertical mergers. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model showing how vertical integration changes the nature of competition in upstream and downstream markets a...

Market Concentration and the Analysis of Vertical Market Structures

This paper investigates the pricing of differentiated products in a vertical sector, with a focus on the role of industry concentration. We propose concentration indices that extend the classical Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI) to include vertical structures that manage differentiated products. We also identify how substitution/complementarity among products affects pricing. We compare our pro...