IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v168y2018icp1-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The efficiency of competing vertical chains with network externalities

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, DongJoon
  • Choi, Kangsik

Abstract

This paper compares vertical integration and vertical separation with network externalities. Contrary to conventional wisdom, if network effects are stronger than the threshold level of the network externality parameter, manufacturers’ strategic choices of wholesale prices move in opposite directions (i.e., wholesale prices may be strategic substitutes under Bertrand competition). Second, if the strength of network effects is strong enough, both profits and outputs are larger under vertical separation than under integration. Finally, if network effects are strong (weak), outputs (wholesale prices, retail prices), consumer surplus, and social welfare are higher (lower) under separation than integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, DongJoon & Choi, Kangsik, 2018. "The efficiency of competing vertical chains with network externalities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 1-5.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:168:y:2018:i:c:p:1-5
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2018.03.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176518301101
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2018.03.019?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. Rey, Patrick & Stiglitz, Joseph, 1988. "Vertical restraints and producers' competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2-3), pages 561-568, March.
    2. Arijit Mukherjee & Laixun Zhao, 2017. "Profit Raising Entry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 214-219, March.
    3. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2013. "Managerial Delegation under Alternative Unionization Structures," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(1), pages 38-57, March.
    4. Chirco, Alessandra & Scrimitore, Marcella, 2013. "Choosing price or quantity? The role of delegation and network externalities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 482-486.
    5. Chou, Chien-fu & Shy, Oz, 1993. "Partial compatibility and supporting services," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 193-197.
    6. Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael L. Katz, 2006. "Your network or mine? The economics of routing rules," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 692-719, September.
    7. Patrick Rey & Joseph Stiglitz, 1995. "The Role of Exclusive Territories in Producers' Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(3), pages 431-451, Autumn.
    8. Abiru, Masahiro & Nahata, Babu & Raychaudhuri, Subhashis & Waterson, Michael, 1998. "Equilibrium structures in vertical oligopoly," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 463-480, December.
    9. Daniel Birke, 2009. "The Economics Of Networks: A Survey Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 762-793, September.
    10. Timothy W. McGuire & Richard Staelin, 1983. "An Industry Equilibrium Analysis of Downstream Vertical Integration," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(2), pages 161-191.
    11. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    12. Gal-Or, Esther, 1991. "Duopolistic vertical restraints," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1237-1253, August.
    13. Bhattacharjee Trishita & Pal Rupayan, 2014. "Network Externalities and Strategic Managerial Delegation in Cournot Duopoly: Is There a Prisoners’ Dilemma?," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(4), pages 343-353, January.
    14. Choi, Kangsik & Lee, DongJoon, 2017. "Welfare-improving vertical separation with network externality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 115-118.
    15. Hoernig, Steffen, 2012. "Strategic delegation under price competition and network effects," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 487-489.
    16. Shy,Oz, 2001. "The Economics of Network Industries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521805001, January.
    17. Bonanno, Giacomo & Vickers, John, 1988. "Vertical Separation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 257-265, March.
    18. Anomita Ghosh & Rupayan Pal, 2014. "Strategic trade policy for network goods oligopolies," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2014-039, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    19. Vickers, John, 1985. "Delegation and the Theory of the Firm," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 95(380a), pages 138-147, Supplemen.
    20. Economides, Nicholas, 1996. "Network externalities, complementarities, and invitations to enter," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 211-233, September.
    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. Habiger, Peter & Kopel, Michael, 2020. "Strategic delegation in successive oligopolies with differentiated firms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    2. Mihaela STEFAN & Andreea MARIN-PANTELESCU & Mirela TÃœRKES, 2018. "Strategic Management Of The Romanian Telecommunication Services," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 12(1), pages 451-461, November.
    3. DongJoon Lee & Kangsik Choi & Tatsuhiko Nariu, 2020. "Endogenous vertical structure with network externalities," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(6), pages 827-846, December.
    4. Yasuhiro Arai & Noriaki Matsushima, 2023. "The impacts of suppliers and mutual outsourcing on organizational forms," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 114-132, February.
    5. Ryo Hashizume & Takeshi Ikeda & Tatsuhiko Nariu, 2021. "Price discrimination with network effects: different welfare results from identical demand functions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 1807-1812.

    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. DongJoon Lee & Kangsik Choi & Tatsuhiko Nariu, 2020. "Endogenous vertical structure with network externalities," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(6), pages 827-846, December.
    2. Choi, Kangsik & Lee, DongJoon, 2017. "Welfare-improving vertical separation with network externality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 115-118.
    3. Anomita Ghosh & Rupayan Pal, 2017. "Welfare Ranking of Alternative Export Taxes Revisited," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 1033-1044.
    4. Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2017. "Manager‐Union Bargaining Agenda Under Monopoly and with Network Effects," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(6), pages 717-730, September.
    5. repec:bla:jecsur:v:12:y:1998:i:4:p:333-59 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Kangsik Choi & DongJoon Lee, 2022. "Network externalities and endogenous timing in managerial firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1462-1475, July.
    7. Anomita Ghosh & Rupayan Pal, "undated". "Welfare ranking of alternative export tariffs revisited," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2015-009, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    8. Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2018. "Profitability of corporate social responsibility in network industries," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 65(3), pages 271-289, September.
    9. Anomita Ghosh & Rupayan Pal, 2014. "Strategic trade policy for network goods oligopolies," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2014-039, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    10. Buccella, Domenico & Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca, 2023. "Optimal R&D disclosure in network industries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(4).
    11. Yasuhiko Nakamura, 2021. "Price versus quantity in a duopoly with network externalities under active and passive expectations," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(1), pages 120-133, January.
    12. Kangsik Choi & DongJoon Lee & Ki‐Dong Lee, 2023. "Biased managers with network externalities," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 70(3), pages 201-216, July.
    13. Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2017. "Profit raising entry effects in network industries with Corporate Social Responsibility," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 59-68.
    14. Xiaojing Liu, 2016. "Contracting for Competitive Supply Chains under Network Externalities and Demand Uncertainty," Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, Hindawi, vol. 2016, pages 1-9, April.
    15. Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2016. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly With Network Compatibility Effects," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 495-512, December.
    16. Foros, Øystein & Kind, Hans Jarle & Shaffer, Greg, 2011. "Resale price maintenance and restrictions on dominant firm and industry-wide adoption," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 179-186, March.
    17. Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2016. "Bargaining Agenda and Entry in a Unionised Model with Network Effects," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 2(1), pages 91-121, March.
    18. Pal, Rupayan, 2015. "Cournot vs. Bertrand under relative performance delegation: Implications of positive and negative network externalities," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 94-101.
    19. Domenico Buccella & Luciano Fanti & Luca Gori, 2023. "Strategic product compatibility in network industries," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 141-168, October.
    20. Fiocco, Raffaele, 2016. "The strategic value of partial vertical integration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 284-302.
    21. Naskar, Mili & Pal, Rupayan, 2020. "Network externalities and process R&D: A Cournot–Bertrand comparison," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 51-58.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Network effects; Competition effects; Strategic substitutes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics

    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:eee:ecolet:v:168:y:2018:i:c:p:1-5. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.