IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bjafio/v16y2018i2p12n5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Non-Linear Demand in a Linear Town

Author

Listed:
  • Torshizi Mohammad

    (Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

  • Fulton Murray E.

    (Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)

  • Gray Richard S.

    (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Alberta, Canada)

Abstract

In Hotelling’s linear town model characteristics are implicitly assumed to be related in such a way that preferences for them can be mapped into a one-dimensional town. This results in perfectly correlated willingness to pay levels. Many differentiated products, however, embody characteristics that are functionally at least somewhat unrelated to other characteristics. This paper makes the implicit assumption of perfectly correlated preferences in the original Hotelling model explicit, and examine the implications of this assumption for the economics of competition. We develop a simple theoretical model to show that shape of the demand curve for differentiated products depends on distribution of consumers’ preferences, which is determined by the nature of the relationship between the corresponding characteristics. Misrepresentation of correlated preferences in differentiated product models impacts demand elasticity and can result in unreliable outcomes. This issue is particularly important in agricultural and food markets where many factors such as expectations about weather and information on social media can impact consumer ranking of one product versus another in ways that are not fully observable or measurable by the researcher.

Suggested Citation

  • Torshizi Mohammad & Fulton Murray E. & Gray Richard S., 2018. "Non-Linear Demand in a Linear Town," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 1-12, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bjafio:v:16:y:2018:i:2:p:12:n:5
    DOI: 10.1515/jafio-2017-0019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/jafio-2017-0019
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/jafio-2017-0019?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey M. Perloff & Steven C. Salop, 1985. "Equilibrium with Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 52(1), pages 107-120.
    2. Neven, Damien J., 1986. "On Hotelling's competition with non-uniform customer distributions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 121-126.
    3. Amil Petrin, 2002. "Quantifying the Benefits of New Products: The Case of the Minivan," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(4), pages 705-729, August.
    4. Bester, Helmut, 1992. "Bertrand Equilibrium in a Differentiated Duopoly," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 33(2), pages 433-448, May.
    5. Michael Sattinger, 1984. "Value of an Additional Firm in Monopolistic Competition," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(2), pages 321-332.
    6. Aviv Nevo, 2011. "Empirical Models of Consumer Behavior," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 51-75, September.
    7. Aviv Nevo, 2000. "Mergers with Differentiated Products: The Case of the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(3), pages 395-421, Autumn.
    8. Anderson, Simon P & de Palma, Andre, 1992. "Multiproduct Firms: A Nested Logit Approach," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 261-276, September.
    9. Irmen, Andreas & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 1998. "Competition in Multi-characteristics Spaces: Hotelling Was Almost Right," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 76-102, January.
    10. Toro-González Daniel & Gallardo R. Karina & Yan Jia & McCluskey Jill J., 2013. "Quality Differentiation with Flavors: Demand Estimation of Unobserved Attributes," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 101-111, September.
    11. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    12. Anderson, Simon P & De Palma, Andre, 1992. "The Logit as a Model of Product Differentiation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 51-67, January.
    13. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    14. Simon P. Anderson & André De Palma & Jacques-François Thisse, 1989. "Demand for Differentiated Products, Discrete Choice Models, and the Characteristics Approach," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(1), pages 21-35.
    15. 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.
    16. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    17. Bonnet, Céline & Richards, Timothy J., 2016. "Models of Consumer Demand for Differentiated Products," TSE Working Papers 16-741, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    18. Timothy J. Richards & Stephen F. Hamilton, 2015. "Variety Pass-Through: An Examination of the Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 166-180, March.
    19. Daniel McFadden & Kenneth Train, 2000. "Mixed MNL models for discrete response," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(5), pages 447-470.
    20. Steven T. Berry, 1994. "Estimating Discrete-Choice Models of Product Differentiation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(2), pages 242-262, Summer.
    21. Besanko, David & Perry, Martin K & Spady, Richard H, 1990. "The Logit Model of Monopolistic Competition: Brand Diversity," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 397-415, June.
    22. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    23. Bonnet, Céline & Réquillart, Vincent, 2013. "Tax incidence with strategic firms in the soft drink market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 77-88.
    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. Auer, Raphael A. & Sauré, Philip, 2017. "Dynamic entry in vertically differentiated markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 177-205.
    2. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, January.
    3. Laurent Reynald-Alexandre, 2006. "Differentiated duopoly with 'elimination by aspects'," Working Papers halshs-00590488, HAL.
    4. Margaret Aksoy-Pierson & Gad Allon & Awi Federgruen, 2013. "Price Competition Under Mixed Multinomial Logit Demand Functions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(8), pages 1817-1835, August.
    5. Steven Berry & Amit Gandhi & Philip Haile, 2013. "Connected Substitutes and Invertibility of Demand," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(5), pages 2087-2111, September.
    6. Steven T. Berry & Philip A. Haile, 2014. "Identification in Differentiated Products Markets Using Market Level Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 1749-1797, September.
    7. Mariana Cunha & António Osório & Ricardo Ribeiro, 2016. "Endogenous product design and quality with rationally inattentive consumers," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 03, Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
    8. Bonnet, Céline & Richards, Timothy J., 2016. "Models of Consumer Demand for Differentiated Products," TSE Working Papers 16-741, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    9. Pereira, Pedro & Ribeiro, Tiago, 2011. "The impact on broadband access to the Internet of the dual ownership of telephone and cable networks," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 283-293, March.
    10. Wang, Ao, 2023. "Sieve BLP: A semi-nonparametric model of demand for differentiated products," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 325-351.
    11. Barigozzi, Francesca & Ma, Ching-to Albert, 2018. "Product differentiation with multiple qualities," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 380-412.
    12. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Horizontal mergers and product quality," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 1063-1103, November.
    13. Stefano Colombo, 2016. "Location choices with a non-linear demand function," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95, pages 215-226, March.
    14. Caplin, Andrew & Nalebuff, Barry, 1991. "Aggregation and Imperfect Competition: On the Existence of Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(1), pages 25-59, January.
    15. Laurent Reynald-Alexandre, 2007. "Probalilistic duopoly with differentiation by attributes," Working Papers halshs-00587847, HAL.
    16. Badruddoza, Syed & Amin, Modhurima & McCluskey, Jill, 2019. "Assessing the Importance of an Attribute in a Demand SystemStructural Model versus Machine Learning," Working Papers 2019-5, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.
    17. 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.
    18. Pinkse, Joris & Slade, Margaret E., 2004. "Mergers, brand competition, and the price of a pint," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 617-643, June.
    19. Ushchev, Philip & Zenou, Yves, 2018. "Price competition in product variety networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 226-247.
    20. Keane, Michael P. & Wasi, Nada, 2016. "How to model consumer heterogeneity? Lessons from three case studies on SP and RP data," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 197-231.

    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:bpj:bjafio:v:16:y:2018:i:2:p:12:n:5. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    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.