Vertical Integration, Foreclosure and Profits in the Presence of Double Marginalisation
نویسندگان
چکیده
Ce document est publié dans l'intention de rendre accessible les résultats préliminaires de la recherche effectuée au CIRANO, afin de susciter des échanges et des suggestions. Les idées et les opinions émises sont sous l'unique responsabilité des auteurs, et ne représentent pas nécessairement les positions du CIRANO ou de ses partenaires. This paper presents preliminary research carried out at CIRANO and aims to encourage discussion and comment. The observations and viewpoints expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily represent positions of CIRANO or its partners. CIRANO Le CIRANO est une corporation privée à but non lucratif constituée en vertu de la Loi des compagnies du Québec. Le financement de son infrastructure et de ses activités de recherche provient des cotisations de ses organisations-membres, d'une subvention d'infrastructure du ministère de l'Industrie, du Commerce, de la Science et de la Technologie, de même que des subventions et mandats obtenus par ses équipes de recherche. La Série Scientifique est la réalisation d'une des missions que s'est données le CIRANO, soit de développer l'analyse scientifique des organisations et des comportements stratégiques. CIRANO is a private non-profit organization incorporated under the Québec Companies Act. Its infrastructure and research activities are funded through fees paid by member organizations, an infrastructure grant from the Ministère de l'Industrie, du Commerce, de la Science et de la Technologie, and grants and research mandates obtained by its research teams. The Scientific Series fulfils one of the missions of CIRANO: to develop the scientific analysis of organizations and strategic behaviour. We are indebted to Andrew Daughety, Jennifer Reinganum and Antoine Soubeyran for helpful discussions when we began work on this paper. The contents of an anonymous co-editor and an anonymous referee have force us to clarify a number of issues and have thus helped improve the paper. We also wish to thank for their comments Jacques Crémer and Roger Ware as well as seminar Résumé / Abstract La rentabilité de l'intégration verticale entre une firme à l'amont et une firme à l'aval dépend de la manière de poser la question, du nombre de firmes et du type d'interaction entre les firmes intégrées et les firmes non-intégrées. Si l'on n'impose aucune contrainte sur les transactions entre les firmes intégrées et les firmes non-intégrées, alors les premières peuvent continuer à acheter l'input produit par les firmes non-intégrées à l'amont afin de hausser les coûts des firmes non-intégrées à …
منابع مشابه
Vertical Integration , Market Foreclosure and Quality Investment *
Incentives to vertically integrate are studied in an industry where downstream firms are vertically differentiated. Vertical integration by one of the firms increases production costs for the rival. Increased production costs impact quality investment both by the integrated firm and the unintegrated rival. A firm, integrating first, always produces the high quality good and earns higher profits...
متن کاملDo Vertical Mergers Facilitate Upstream Collusion?∗
In this paper we investigate the impact of vertical mergers on upstream firms’ ability to sustain collusion. We show in a number of models that the net effect of vertical integration is to facilitate collusion. Several effects arise. When upstream offers are secret, vertical mergers faciliate collusion through the operation of a foreclosure effect: Cheating unintegrated firms can no longer prof...
متن کاملVertical foreclosure in experimental markets
We report the results of experiments designed to test recent theories of vertical foreclosure. Consistent with the theory, vertical integration improves the upstream firm’s ability to commit to restricting output to the monopoly level, as does the use of public contracts. Public contracts are not a perfect substitute for vertical integration, however: integration allows more surplus to be extra...
متن کاملForeclosure with Incomplete Information
We investigate the robustness of the new foreclosure doctrine and its associated welfare implications to the introduction of incomplete information. In particular, we let the upstream firm’s marginal cost be private information, unknown to the downstream firms. The previous literature has argued that vertical integration is harmful because it allows an upstream monopolist to limit output to mon...
متن کاملInferring the Effects of Vertical Integration from Entry Games: An Analysis of the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry
This paper introduces a novel method for examining the effects of vertical integration. The basic idea is to estimate the parameters of a vertical entry game. By carefully specifying firms’ payoff equations and constructing appropriate tests, it is possible to use estimates on rival profit effects to make inferences about the existence of vertical foreclosure. I estimate the vertical entry mode...
متن کاملVertical 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...
متن کامل