Signaling quality through prices in an oligopoly

نویسندگان

  • Maarten C. W. Janssen
  • Santanu Roy
چکیده

Firms signal high quality through high prices even if the market structure is highly competitive and price competition is severe. In a symmetric Bertrand oligopoly where products may differ only in their quality, production cost is increasing in quality and the quality of each firm’s product is private information (not known to consumers or to other firms), we show that there exist fully revealing equilibria in mixed strategies. In such equilibria, low quality firms enjoy market power when other firms are of high quality. High quality firms charge higher prices than low quality firms but lose business to rival firms with higher probability. Some of the revealing equilibria involve high degree of market power (price close to full information monopoly level) while others are more "competitive". Under certain conditions, if the number of firms is large enough, information is revealed in every equilibrium. JEL Classification: L13, L15, D82, D43. Key-words: Signaling; Quality; Oligopoly; Incomplete Information. ∗We thank Andrew Daughety and Jennifer Reinganum for insightful comments. †Department of Economics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: (+31)-10-4082341; E-mail: [email protected]. ‡Department of Economics, Southern Methodist University, 3300 Dyer Street, Dallas, TX 75275-0496. Tel: 214 768 2714; E-mail: [email protected].

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

On the efficiency of private and state-owned enterprises in mixed markets ¬リニ

a r t i c l e i n f o We examine oligopoly models of vertical product differentiation in which producing firms face variable costs of quality development. We show that comparing to private oligopoly, mixed oligopoly – whereby state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms coexist – enhances social welfare but reduces firms' profitability. We also demonstrate that Bertrand competition makes fi...

متن کامل

Price and Inventory Dynamics in an Oligopoly Industry: A Framework for Commodity Markets

This paper analyzes the interaction between price and inventory decisions in an oligopoly industry and its implications for the dynamics of prices. The work extends existing literature and especially the work of Hall and Rust (2007) to endogenous prices and strategic oligopoly competition. We show that the optimal decision rule is an (S, s) order policy and prices and inventory are strategic su...

متن کامل

Simultaneous Decentralized Competitive Supply Chain Network Design under Oligopoly Competition

This paper discusses a problem in which  decentralized supply chains enter the market simultaneously with no existing rival chains, shape the supply chains’ networks, and set wholesale and retail prices in a noncooperative manner. All the chains produce either identical or highly substitutable products. Customer demand is elastic and price-dependent. A three-step algorithm is proposed to solve ...

متن کامل

Pricing and Trust

We experimentally examine the effects of flexible and fixed prices in markets for experience goods in which demand is driven by trust. With flexible prices, we observe low prices and high quality in competitive (oligopolistic) markets, and high prices coupled with low quality in non-competitive (monopolistic) markets. We then introduce a regulated intermediate price above the oligopoly price an...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Games and Economic Behavior

دوره 68  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2010