IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jemstr/v17y2008i1p247-270.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Downstream Competition, Bargaining, and Welfare

Author

Listed:
  • George Symeonidis

Abstract

I analyze the effects of downstream competition when there is bargaining between downstream firms and upstream agents (firms or unions). When bargaining is over a uniform input price, a decrease in the intensity of competition (or a merger) between downstream firms may raise consumer surplus and overall welfare. When bargaining is over a two‐part tariff, a decrease in the intensity of competition reduces downstream profits and upstream utility and raises consumer surplus and overall welfare. Standard welfare results of oligopoly theory can be reversed: less competition can be unprofitable for firms and/or beneficial for consumers and society as a whole.

Suggested Citation

  • George Symeonidis, 2008. "Downstream Competition, Bargaining, and Welfare," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 247-270, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:17:y:2008:i:1:p:247-270
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9134.2008.00177.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9134.2008.00177.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1530-9134.2008.00177.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Zhiqi & Ross, Thomas W., 2003. "Cooperating upstream while competing downstream: a theory of input joint ventures," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 381-397, March.
    2. Avinash Dixit, 1979. "A Model of Duopoly Suggesting a Theory of Entry Barriers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 20-32, Spring.
    3. Chaim Fershtman & Ariel Pakes, 2000. "A Dynamic Oligopoly with Collusion and Price Wars," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(2), pages 207-236, Summer.
    4. Lopez, Monica Correa & Naylor, Robin A., 2004. "The Cournot-Bertrand profit differential: A reversal result in a differentiated duopoly with wage bargaining," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 681-696, June.
    5. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1990. "Multiproduct Firms and Market Structure," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 45-62, Spring.
    6. Vettas, Nikolaos & Petrakis, Emmanuel & Milliou, Chrysovalantou, 2003. "Endogenous Contracts Under Bargaining in Competing Vertical Chains," CEPR Discussion Papers 3976, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Daniel P. O'Brien & Greg Shaffer, 2005. "Bargining, Bundling, and Clout: The Portfolio Effects of Horizontal Mergers," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(3), pages 573-595, Autumn.
    8. Milliou, Chrysovalantou & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2007. "Upstream horizontal mergers, vertical contracts, and bargaining," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 963-987, October.
    9. Naylor, Robin A., 2002. "Industry profits and competition under bilateral oligopoly," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 169-175, October.
    10. Henrick Horn & Asher Wolinsky, 1988. "Bilateral Monopolies and Incentives for Merger," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(3), pages 408-419, Autumn.
    11. Kjell Erik Lommerud & Odd Rune Straume & Lars Sørgard, 2006. "National versus international mergers in unionized oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(1), pages 212-233, March.
    12. Chen, Zhiqi, 2003. "Dominant Retailers and the Countervailing-Power Hypothesis," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(4), pages 612-625, Winter.
    13. Fabian Bergès-Sennou & Stéphane Caprice, 2008. "Is Competition or Collusion in the Product Market Relevant for Labour Markets?," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 74(3), pages 273-298.
    14. Cyert, Richard M & DeGroot, Morris H, 1973. "An Analysis of Cooperation and Learning in a Duopoly Context," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(1), pages 24-37, March.
    15. Ziss, Steffen, 1995. "Vertical Separation and Horizontal Mergers," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 63-75, March.
    16. George Symeonidis, 2000. "Price and Nonprice Competition with Endogenous Market Structure," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 53-83, March.
    17. Vives, Xavier, 1985. "On the efficiency of Bertrand and Cournot equilibria with product differentation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 166-175, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. George Symeonidis, 2008. "Downstream Competition, Bargaining, and Welfare," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 247-270, 03.
    2. Symeonidis, George, 2010. "Downstream merger and welfare in a bilateral oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 230-243, May.
    3. Ghosh, Arghya & Morita, Hodaka & Wang, Chengsi, 2014. "Horizontal mergers in the presence of vertical relationships," MPRA Paper 60275, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Alberto Iozzi & Tommaso Valletti, 2014. "Vertical Bargaining and Countervailing Power," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 106-135, August.
    5. Shohei Yoshida, 2018. "Bargaining power and firm profits in asymmetric duopoly: an inverted-U relationship," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 139-158, June.
    6. Alipranti, Maria & Milliou, Chrysovalantou & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2014. "Price vs. quantity competition in a vertically related market," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 122-126.
    7. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2011. "On Product Differentiation and Profits in Unionized Duopolies," Working Paper series 37_11, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    8. Fanti, Luciano & Meccheri, Nicola, 2014. "Profits and competition under alternative technologies in a unionized duopoly with product differentiation," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 157-168.
    9. Domenico Buccella, 2014. "Bargaining Structures and Agendas in an Unconstrained Hotelling Model," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 149-167, December.
    10. Domenico Buccella, 2015. "Unionized duopoly, market competition with differentiated products, and welfare," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(4), pages 455-473, December.
    11. Chrysovalantou Milliou & Joel Sandonis, 2018. "Manufacturer Mergers and Product Variety in Vertically Related Markets," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-24, March.
    12. Manasakis, Constantine & Vlassis, Minas, 2014. "Downstream mode of competition with upstream market power," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 84-93.
    13. Ioannis Pinopoulos, 2016. "Vertical integration and upstream horizontal mergers," Discussion Paper Series 2016_03, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Nov 2016.
    14. Domenico Buccella, 2014. "Product market competition with differentiated goods and social welfare in the presence of an industry-wide union," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 13(2), pages 131-140, August.
    15. Xingtang Wang & Jie Li, 2020. "Downstream rivals’ competition, bargaining, and welfare," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 61-75, September.
    16. Symeonidis, George, 2018. "Collusion, profitability and welfare: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 530-545.
    17. Ioannis N. Pinopoulos, 2017. "Upstream horizontal mergers and vertical integration," Discussion Paper Series 2017_07, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Aug 2017.
    18. Domenico Buccella & Leonard F. S. Wang, 2021. "Union negotiations, product market cooperation, and profits," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(1), pages 82-100, February.
    19. Fanti, Luciano, 2016. "Social welfare and cross-ownership in a vertical industry: When the mode of competition matters for antitrust policy," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 8-16.
    20. Domenico Buccella & Luciano Fanti, 2022. "Downstream competition and profits under different input price bargaining structures," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 251-268, August.

    More about this item

    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:bla:jemstr:v:17:y:2008:i:1:p:247-270. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/journals/JEMS/ .

    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.