Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rim/rimwps/14_10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Product Line Pricing in a Vertically Differentiated Oligopoly

Author

Listed:
  • George Deltas

    (Department of Economics, University of Illinois, U.-C., United States)

  • Thanasis Stengos

    (Department of Economics, University of Guelph, Canada)

  • Eleftherios Zacharias

    (Department of Economics, Athens School of Economics, Greece)

Abstract
This paper empirically examines the joint pricing decision of products in a firm's product line. When products are distinguished by a vertical characteristic, those products with higher values of that characteristic will command higher prices. We investigate whether, holding the value of the characteristic constant, there is a price premium for products on the industry and/or the firm frontier, i.e., for the products with the highest value of the characteristic in the market or in a firm's product line. The existence of price premia for lower ranked products is also investigated. Finally, the paper investigates whether firms set prices to avoid cannibalizing the other products in their portfolio, whether competition with rival firms is stronger for products that are closer to the frontier compared to other products, and whether a product's price declines with the time it is owned by a firm. Using personal computer price data, we show that prices decline with the distance from the industry and firm frontiers. We find evidence that consumer tastes for brands is stronger for the consumers of frontier products (and thus competition between firms weaker in the top end of the market). Finally, there is evidence that a product's price is higher if a firm offers products with the immediately faster and immediately slower computer chip (holding the total number of a firm's offerings constant), possibly as an attempt way to reduce cannibalization.

Suggested Citation

  • George Deltas & Thanasis Stengos & Eleftherios Zacharias, 2010. "Product Line Pricing in a Vertically Differentiated Oligopoly," Working Paper series 14_10, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:rim:rimwps:14_10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rcea.org/RePEc/pdf/wp14_10.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilbert, Richard J & Matutes, Carmen, 1993. "Product Line Rivalry with Brand Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 223-240, September.
    2. T. Stengos & E. Zacharias, 2006. "Intertemporal pricing and price discrimination: a semiparametric hedonic analysis of the personal computer market," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 371-386, April.
    3. Frank Verboven, 1999. "Product Line Rivalry and Market Segmentation—with an Application to Automobile Optional Engine Pricing," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 399-425, December.
    4. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
    5. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    6. Katz, Michael L, 1984. "Firm-Specific Differentiation and Competition among Multiproduct Firms," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(1), pages 149-166, January.
    7. Deltas, George & Zacharias, Eleftherios, 2004. "Sampling Frequency and the Comparison between Matched-Model and Hedonic Regression Price Indexes," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 22(1), pages 94-106, January.
    8. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    9. Dan Ariely & George Loewenstein & Drazen Prelec, 2003. ""Coherent Arbitrariness": Stable Demand Curves Without Stable Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 73-106.
    10. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    11. Itoh, Motoshige, 1983. "Monopoly, product differentiation and economic welfare," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 88-104, October.
    12. Barron, John M & Taylor, Beck A & Umbeck, John R, 2000. "A Theory of Quality-Related Differences in Retail Margins: Why There Is a "Premium" on Premium Gasoline," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(4), pages 550-569, October.
    13. , & ,, 2008. "Nonlinear pricing, market coverage, and competition," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 3(1), March.
    14. Deltas, George & Zacharias, Eleftherios, 2006. "Entry order and pricing over the product cycle: The transition from the 486 to the Pentium processor," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 1041-1069, September.
    15. Jaskold Gabszewicz, J. & Thisse, J. -F., 1979. "Price competition, quality and income disparities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 340-359, June.
    16. Frank Verboven, 2002. "Quality-Based Price Discrimination and Tax Incidence: Evidence from Gasoline and Diesel Cars," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(2), pages 275-297, Summer.
    17. Zhang, Wenyang & Lee, Sik-Yum & Song, Xinyuan, 2002. "Local Polynomial Fitting in Semivarying Coefficient Model," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 166-188, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tommaso Ciarli & Andre' Lorentz & Maria Savona & Marco Valente, 2012. "The role of technology, organisation, and demand in growth and income distribution," LEM Papers Series 2012/06, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    2. George Deltas & Eleftherios Zacharias, 2018. "Product Proliferation and Pricing in a Market with Positional Effects," Working Papers 242312853, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    3. Silvio Sticher, 2013. "Competitive Market Segmentation," Diskussionsschriften dp1313, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    4. Evdokia Dritsa & Eleftherios Zacharias, 2012. "Price Competition in a Duopoly Characterized by Positional Effects," Working Papers 12-21, NET Institute.
    5. Ciarli, Tommaso & Valente, Marco, 2016. "The complex interactions between economic growth and market concentration in a model of structural change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 38-54.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    2. Yi-Ling Cheng & Shin-Kun Peng, 2012. "Quality and Quantity Competition in a Multiproduct Duopoly," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(1), pages 180-202, July.
    3. T. Stengos & E. Zacharias, 2006. "Intertemporal pricing and price discrimination: a semiparametric hedonic analysis of the personal computer market," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 371-386, April.
    4. Natalia Fabra & Juan-Pablo Montero, 2022. "Product Lines and Price Discrimination in Markets with Information Frictions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(2), pages 981-1001, February.
    5. De Fraja, Giovanni, 1996. "Product line competition in vertically differentiated markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 389-414, May.
    6. Justin P. Johnson & David P. Myatt, 2006. "Multiproduct Cournot oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 583-601, September.
    7. S. Baranzoni & P. Bianchi & L. Lambertini, 2000. "Multiproduct Firms, Product Differentiation, and Market Structure," Working Papers 368, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    8. Constantatos, Christos & Perrakis, Stylianos, 1995. "Différenciation verticale et structure du marché," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 71(1), pages 71-98, mars.
    9. Bos, Iwan & Marini, Marco A., 2019. "Cartel stability under quality differentiation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 70-73.
    10. Cédric Argenton, 2010. "Exclusive Quality," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 690-716, September.
    11. C. Benassi & A. Chirco & C. Colombo, 2015. "Beyond the Uniform Distribution: Equilibrium Prices and Qualities in a Vertically Differentiated Duopoly," Working Papers wp1044, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    12. Ying He & Huaxia Rui, 2022. "Probabilistic selling in vertically differentiated markets: The role of substitution," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(11), pages 4191-4204, November.
    13. George Norman & Lynne Pepall & Daniel Richards, 2005. "Product differentiation, cost-reducing mergers, and consumer welfare," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1204-1223, November.
    14. Lambertini, Luca & Orsini, Raimondello & Palestini, Arsen, 2017. "On the instability of the R&D portfolio in a dynamic monopoly. Or, one cannot get two eggs in one basket," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 703-712.
    15. Liang Lu, 2015. "Proliferation and Entry Deterrence in Vertically Differentiated Markets," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2015-06, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    16. Anderson, Simon P. & Gabszewicz, Jean J., 2006. "The Media and Advertising: A Tale of Two-Sided Markets," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 567-614, Elsevier.
    17. Bacchiega, Emanuele & Minniti, Antonio, 2009. "The Quality-Income effect and the selection of location," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 209-215, March.
    18. Manez, J.A. & Waterson, M., 2001. "Multiproduct Firms and Product Differentiation: a Survey," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 594, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    19. Li, Han & Dinlersoz, Emin, 2012. "Quality-based Price Discrimination: Evidence from Internet Retailers’ Shipping Options," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 276-290.
    20. Baake, Pio & Boom, Anette, 2001. "Vertical product differentiation, network externalities, and compatibility decisions," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(1-2), pages 267-284, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pricing; Multiproduct firms; Personal Computers; Product Entry and Exit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L63 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Microelectronics; Computers; Communications Equipment

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rim:rimwps:14_10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marco Savioli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcfeait.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.