IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/indorg/v58y2018icp1-30.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Switching costs and network compatibility

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Jiawei

Abstract

This paper investigates how consumer switching costs affect firms’ compatibility choices and social welfare in network industries. Firms face a choice between two modes of competition: make their networks incompatible and compete fiercely for market dominance, or make their networks compatible and have mild competition. By incentivizing firms to harvest their locked-in consumers rather than price aggressively for market dominance, switching costs tip the balance in favor of compatible networks and mild competition. A public policy that reduces switching costs also tends to make networks incompatible, and results in small efficiency gains at best. Combining the policy with a mandatory compatibility policy, however, can lead to sizable efficiency gains.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Jiawei, 2018. "Switching costs and network compatibility," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-30.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:58:y:2018:i:c:p:1-30
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2017.12.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718717301947
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2017.12.003?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. Jacques Crémer & Patrick Rey & Jean Tirole, 2000. "Connectivity in the Commercial Internet," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 433-472, December.
    2. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1986. "Product Compatibility Choice in a Market with Technological Progress," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(0), pages 146-165, Suppl. No.
    3. Jiawei Chen & Ulrich Doraszelski & Joseph E. Harrington, Jr., 2009. "Avoiding market dominance: product compatibility in markets with network effects," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 455-485, September.
    4. Ariel Pakes & Paul McGuire, 1994. "Computing Markov-Perfect Nash Equilibria: Numerical Implications of a Dynamic Differentiated Product Model," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(4), pages 555-589, Winter.
    5. 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.
    6. Andrew T. Ching, 2010. "A Dynamic Oligopoly Structural Model For The Prescription Drug Market After Patent Expiration," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1175-1207, November.
    7. Ulrich Doraszelski & Mark Satterthwaite, 2010. "Computable Markov‐perfect industry dynamics," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(2), pages 215-243, June.
    8. Meghan R. Busse & Christopher R. Knittel & Florian Zettelmeyer, 2013. "Are Consumers Myopic? Evidence from New and Used Car Purchases," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 220-256, February.
    9. Taylor, Curtis R, 2003. "Supplier Surfing: Competition and Consumer Behavior in Subscription Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(2), pages 223-246, Summer.
    10. Hannan, Timothy H., 2007. "ATM surcharge bans and bank market structure: The case of Iowa and its neighbors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 1061-1082, April.
    11. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555.
    12. Fabio Manenti & Ernesto Somma, 2008. "One-Way Compatibility, Two-Way Compatibility and Entry in Network Industries," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 301-322.
    13. David A. Malueg & Marius Schwartz, 2006. "Compatibility Incentives Of A Large Network Facing Multiple Rivals," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 527-567, December.
    14. Matthew T. Clements & Hiroshi Ohashi, 2005. "Indirect Network Effects And The Product Cycle: Video Games In The U.S., 1994–2002," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 515-542, December.
    15. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Patrick Rey & Jean Tirole, 1998. "Network Competition: II. Price Discrimination," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(1), pages 38-56, Spring.
    16. Pakes, Ariel & McGuire, Paul, 2001. "Stochastic Algorithms, Symmetric Markov Perfect Equilibrium, and the 'Curse' of Dimensionality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(5), pages 1261-1281, September.
    17. Neil Gandal & Michael Kende & Rafael Rob, 2000. "The Dynamics of Technological Adoption in Hardware/Software Systems: The Case of Compact Disc Players," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(1), pages 43-61, Spring.
    18. Jiawei Chen, 2011. "How do Switching Costs Affect Market Concentration and Prices in Network Industries?," 2011 Meeting Papers 1428, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Miao, Chun-Hui, 2010. "Consumer myopia, standardization and aftermarket monopolization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 931-946, October.
    20. Gerard Llobet & Michael Manove, 2006. "Network Size and Network Capture," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2006-007, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    21. Mengze Shi & Jeongwen Chiang & Byong-Duk Rhee, 2006. "Price Competition with Reduced Consumer Switching Costs: The Case of "Wireless Number Portability" in the Cellular Phone Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 27-38, January.
    22. Luís Cabral, 2011. "Dynamic Price Competition with Network Effects," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 78(1), pages 83-111.
    23. Chen, Yongmin & Rosenthal, Robert W., 1996. "Dynamic duopoly with slowly changing customer loyalties," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 269-296, May.
    24. Beggs, Alan W & Klemperer, Paul, 1992. "Multi-period Competition with Switching Costs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(3), pages 651-666, May.
    25. Zucchini, Leon & Claussen, Jörg & Trüg, Moritz, 2013. "Tariff-mediated network effects versus strategic discounting: Evidence from German mobile telecommunications," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 751-759.
    26. Farrell, Joseph & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "Standardization and variety," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 71-74.
    27. Dick, Astrid A., 2008. "Demand estimation and consumer welfare in the banking industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1661-1676, August.
    28. Shy,Oz, 2001. "The Economics of Network Industries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521805001.
    29. Darren Filson, 2012. "A Markov‐perfect equilibrium model of the impacts of price controls on the performance of the pharmaceutical industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 43(1), pages 110-138, March.
    30. Markovich, Sarit, 2008. "Snowball: A dynamic oligopoly model with indirect network effects," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 909-938, March.
    31. Matthew Mitchell & Andrzej Skrzypacz, 2006. "Network externalities and long-run market shares," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(3), pages 621-648, November.
    32. Gautam Gowrisankaran & Robert J. Town, 1997. "Dynamic Equilibrium in the Hospital Industry," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(1), pages 45-74, March.
    33. C. Lanier Benkard, 2004. "A Dynamic Analysis of the Market for Wide-Bodied Commercial Aircraft," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(3), pages 581-611.
    34. Nicholas Economides & Fredrick Flyer, 1997. "Compatibility and Market Structure for Network Goods," Working Papers 98-02, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    35. Wei Tan, 2006. "The Effects of Taxes and Advertising Restrictions on the Market Structure of the U.S. Cigarette Market," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 28(3), pages 231-251, May.
    36. repec:bla:jindec:v:48:y:2000:i:4:p:433-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. John S. Heywood & Zerong Wang & Guangliang Ye, 2022. "R&D rivalry with endogenous compatibility," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 90(3), pages 354-384, June.

    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. Jiawei Chen-super-†, 2016. "How Do Switching Costs Affect Market Concentration and Prices in Network Industries?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 226-254, June.
    2. Jiawei Chen & Ulrich Doraszelski & Joseph E. Harrington, Jr., 2009. "Avoiding market dominance: product compatibility in markets with network effects," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 40(3), pages 455-485, September.
    3. Jiawei Chen, 2010. "Product Compatibility in Network Industries with Switching Costs," Working Papers 10-23, NET Institute.
    4. Jiawei Chen, 2009. "Switching Costs and Dynamic Price Competition in Network Industries," Working Papers 09-25, NET Institute, revised Apr 2010.
    5. Jullien, Bruno & Pavan, Alessandro & Rysman, Marc, 2021. "Two-sided Markets, Pricing, and Network Effects," TSE Working Papers 21-1238, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    6. Oz Shy, 2011. "A Short Survey of Network Economics," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(2), pages 119-149, March.
    7. Linli Xu & Jorge M. Silva-Risso & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2018. "Dynamic Quality Ladder Model Predictions in Nonrandom Holdout Samples," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3187-3207, July.
    8. Doraszelski, Ulrich & Satterthwaite, Mark, 2007. "Computable Markov-Perfect Industry Dynamics: Existence, Purification, and Multiplicity," CEPR Discussion Papers 6212, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Ulrich Doraszelski & Mark Satterthwaite, 2007. "Computable Markov-Perfect Industry Dynamics: Existence, Purification, and Multiplicity," Levine's Bibliography 321307000000000912, UCLA Department of Economics.
    10. Gabriel Y. Weintraub & C. Lanier Benkard & Benjamin Van Roy, 2010. "Computational Methods for Oblivious Equilibrium," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(4-part-2), pages 1247-1265, August.
    11. Ulrich Doraszelski & Kenneth L. Judd, 2019. "Dynamic stochastic games with random moves," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 59-79, March.
    12. C. Lanier Benkard & Przemyslaw Jeziorski & Gabriel Y. Weintraub, 2013. "Oblivious Equilibrium for Concentrated Industries," NBER Working Papers 19307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Laussel, Didier & Resende, Joana, 2014. "Dynamic price competition in aftermarkets with network effects," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 106-118.
    14. Luís Cabral, 2011. "Dynamic Price Competition with Network Effects," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 78(1), pages 83-111.
    15. David Besanko & Ulrich Doraszelski & Yaroslav Kryukov, 2017. "How Efficient is Dynamic Competition? The Case of Price as Investment," NBER Working Papers 23829, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Tingting He & Dmitri Kuksov & Chakravarthi Narasimhan, 2012. "Intraconnectivity and Interconnectivity: When Value Creation May Reduce Profits," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 587-602, July.
    17. C. Lanier Benkard & Benjamin Van Roy & Gabriel Y. Weintraub, 2005. "Markov perfect industry dynamics with many firms," Working Paper Series 2005-23, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    18. Laussel, Didier & Van Long, Ngo & Resende, Joana, 2015. "Network effects, aftermarkets and the Coase conjecture: A dynamic Markovian approach," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 84-96.
    19. C. Lanier Benkard & Przemyslaw Jeziorski & Gabriel Y. Weintraub, 2015. "Oblivious equilibrium for concentrated industries," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(4), pages 671-708, October.
    20. Weintraub, Gabriel Y. & Benkard, C. Lanier & Van Roy, Benjamin, 2007. "Computational Methods for Oblivious Equilibrium," Research Papers 1969, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.

    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:indorg:v:58:y:2018:i:c:p:1-30. 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/inca/505551 .

    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.