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Competition Can Harm Consumers

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  • SIMON COWAN
  • XIANGKANG YIN

Abstract

Duopolists selling differentiated products can generate less consumer surplus than a monopoly selling one of the products. In a Hotelling‐type model where a monopoly supplies more than half of potential consumers, but not all, entry by a rival leads to a duopoly price that is higher than the monopoly price. Consumers in aggregate will be made worse off by such entry when the effect of the price increase outweighs the benefit of extra variety. When consumers have continuous demand functions and firms use two‐part tariffs, duopoly can also result in lower aggregate consumer surplus than monopoly.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Cowan & Xiangkang Yin, 2008. "Competition Can Harm Consumers," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 264-271, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecp:v:47:y:2008:i:3:p:264-271
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8454.2008.00347.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Bertoletti, Paolo & Fumagalli, Eileen & Poletti, Clara, 2017. "Price-cost margins and firm size under monopolistic competition: The case of IES preferences," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 653-662.
    4. Emanuele Bacchiega & Elias Carroni & Alessandro Fedele, 2024. "On the Existence of Nash Equilibria in Two-Sided Hotelling Models," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS106, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    5. Rolf Golombek & Michael Hoel & Snorre Kverndokk & Stefano Ninfole & Knut Einar Rosendahl & Michael Olaf Hoel, 2024. "Competition for Carbon Storage," CESifo Working Paper Series 11052, CESifo.
    6. Robert A. Ritz, 2018. "Oligopolistic competition and welfare," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume I, chapter 7, pages 181-200, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Qiuyu Lu & Noriaki Matsushima, 2024. "Personalized Pricing When Consumers Can Purchase Multiple Items," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 1507-1524, December.
    8. Cumbul, Eray & Virág, Gábor, 2018. "Multilateral limit pricing in price-setting games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 250-273.
    9. Emanuele Bacchiega & Elias Carroni & Alessandro Fedele, 2023. "Monopolistic Duopoly," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS101, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.

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