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Endogenous Entry in Markets with Unobserved Quality

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  • Anthony Creane
  • Thomas D. Jeitschko

Abstract

In markets for experience or credence goods adverse selection can drive out higher quality products and services. This negative implication of asymmetric information about product quality for trading and welfare, poses the question of how such markets first originate. We consider a market in which sellers make observable investment decisions to enter a market in which each seller's quality becomes private information. Entry has the tendency to lower prices, which may lead to adverse selection. The implied price collapse limits the amount of entry so that high prices are sustained in equilibrium, which results in above normal profits. The analysis suggests that rather than observing the canonical market collapse, markets with asymmetric information about product quality may instead be characterized by above normal profits even in markets with low measures of concentration and less entry than would be expected.
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  • Anthony Creane & Thomas D. Jeitschko, 2016. "Endogenous Entry in Markets with Unobserved Quality," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 494-519, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jindec:v:64:y:2016:i:3:p:494-519
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/joie.12113
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    Cited by:

    1. Creane, Anthony & Jeitschko, Thomas D. & Sim, Kyoungbo, 2022. "Welfare effects of product certification under latent adverse selection," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Heinsalu, Sander, 2020. "Investing to access an adverse selection market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Zan Zhang & Guofang Nan & Minqiang Li & Yong Tan, 2022. "Competitive Entry of Information Goods Under Quality Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 2869-2888, April.
    4. Etro, Federico, 2016. "Research in economics and industrial organization," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 511-517.
    5. Raúl Bajo‐Buenestado, 2023. "Efficient regulated entry in competitive markets with demand uncertainty," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(2), pages 413-422, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

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