IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/indorg/v65y2019icp152-172.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Asymmetry in capacity and the adoption of all-units discounts

Author

Listed:
  • Chao, Yong
  • Tan, Guofu
  • Wong, Adam Chi Leung

Abstract

In many abuse of dominance antitrust cases, the dominant firm adopts pricing schemes involving all-units discounts, whereas its smaller competitors often use simple linear pricing. We provide a game-theoretic justification for the observed asymmetry in pricing practices by studying a model in which a firm with full capacity faces a capacity-constrained rival. The asymmetry in capacity between the firms, which gives rise to the captive market, allows the dominant firm to take advantage of the quantity commitment through all-units discounts while the capacity-constrained rival is induced to offer simple linear pricing.

Suggested Citation

  • Chao, Yong & Tan, Guofu & Wong, Adam Chi Leung, 2019. "Asymmetry in capacity and the adoption of all-units discounts," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 152-172.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:65:y:2019:i:c:p:152-172
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2019.03.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718719300189
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2019.03.001?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. Amir, Rabah & Stepanova, Anna, 2006. "Second-mover advantage and price leadership in Bertrand duopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Hamilton, Jonathan H. & Slutsky, Steven M., 1990. "Endogenous timing in duopoly games: Stackelberg or cournot equilibria," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 29-46, March.
    3. Gal-Or, Esther, 1985. "First Mover and Second Mover Advantages," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 26(3), pages 649-653, October.
    4. van Damme, E.E.C. & Hurkens, S., 2004. "Endogenous price leadership," Other publications TiSEM 0bc41e9f-cede-46e7-bab6-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. van Damme, Eric & Hurkens, Sjaak, 2004. "Endogenous price leadership," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 404-420, May.
    6. Christopher T. Conlon & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2021. "Efficiency and Foreclosure Effects of Vertical Rebates: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(12), pages 3357-3404.
    7. Eberhard Feess & Ansgar Wohlschlegel, 2010. "All-Unit Discounts and the Problem of Surplus Division," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 37(3), pages 161-178, November.
    8. Yong Chao & Guofu Tan & Adam Chi Leung Wong, 2018. "All†units discounts as a partial foreclosure device," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 49(1), pages 155-180, March.
    9. Daniel P. O'Brien & Greg Shaffer, 1997. "Nonlinear Supply Contracts, Exclusive Dealing, and Equilibrium Market Foreclosure," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(4), pages 755-785, December.
    10. Steve Dowrick, 1986. "von Stackelberg and Cournot Duopoly: Choosing Roles," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(2), pages 251-260, Summer.
    11. Xiao Fu & Guofu Tan, 2019. "Abuse of Market Dominance Under China’s Anti-Monopoly Law: The Case of Tetra Pak," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(2), pages 409-434, March.
    12. David M. Kreps & Jose A. Scheinkman, 1983. "Quantity Precommitment and Bertrand Competition Yield Cournot Outcomes," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 326-337, Autumn.
    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. Calzolari, Giacomo & Denicolò, Vincenzo, 2020. "Loyalty discounts and price-cost tests," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Manel Antelo & Lluís Bru, 2024. "Intrapersonal price discrimination and welfare in a dominant firm model," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 163-188, March.

    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. Kempf, Hubert & Rota-Graziosi, Grégoire, 2010. "Endogenizing leadership in tax competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 768-776, October.
    2. Matsui, Kenji, 2016. "Asymmetric product distribution between symmetric manufacturers using dual-channel supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 646-657.
    3. Attila Tasnádi, 2016. "Endogenous timing of moves in Bertrand–Edgeworth triopolies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 12(4), pages 317-334, December.
    4. Cuihong Fan & Byoung Heon Jun & Elmar G. Wolfstetter, 2019. "Induced Price Leadership and (Counter-)Spying Rivals' Play under Incomplete Information," CESifo Working Paper Series 7476, CESifo.
    5. Chen, Jing & Chen, Bintong & Li, Wei, 2018. "Who should be pricing leader in the presence of customer returns?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 735-747.
    6. Madden, Paul & Pezzino, Mario, 2019. "Endogenous price leadership with an essential input," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 47-59.
    7. Kosuke Hirose & Sang-ho Lee & Toshihiro Matsumura, 2017. "Environmental corporate social responsibility : A note on the first-mover advantage under price competition," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(1), pages 214-221.
    8. Hubert Kempf & Grégoire Rota Graziosi, 2010. "Leadership in Public Good Provision: A Timing Game Perspective," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 12(4), pages 763-787, August.
    9. Keisuke Hattori & Takahiro Kitamura, 2013. "Endogenous Timing in Strategic Environmental Policymaking," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(2), pages 199-215, June.
    10. Yousefimanesh, Niloofar & Bos, Iwan & Vermeulen, Dries, 2023. "Strategic rationing in Stackelberg games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 529-555.
    11. Pedro Jara-Moroni, 2008. "The Cournot outcome as the result of price competition," Working Papers halshs-00587866, HAL.
    12. Li, Youping, 2014. "Price leadership in a vertically differentiated market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 67-70.
    13. Matsui, Kenji, 2017. "When should a manufacturer set its direct price and wholesale price in dual-channel supply chains?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 501-511.
    14. Yiquan Gu & Leonardo Madio & Carlo Reggiani, 2019. "Exclusive Data, Price Manipulation and Market Leadership," CESifo Working Paper Series 7853, CESifo.
    15. Niu, Baozhuang & Wang, Yulan & Guo, Pengfei, 2015. "Equilibrium pricing sequence in a co-opetitive supply chain with the ODM as a downstream rival of its OEM," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 57(PB), pages 249-270.
    16. Matsui, Kenji, 2019. "A supply chain member should set its margin later if another member's cost is highly uncertain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(1), pages 127-138.
    17. Amir, Rabah & Stepanova, Anna, 2006. "Second-mover advantage and price leadership in Bertrand duopoly," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-20, April.
    18. von Stengel, Bernhard, 2010. "Follower payoffs in symmetric duopoly games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 512-516, July.
    19. Li, Wei & Chen, Jing, 2018. "Pricing and quality competition in a brand-differentiated supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 97-108.
    20. Daisuke Hirata & Toshihiro Matsumura, 2011. "Price leadership in a homogeneous product market," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 199-217, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Linear pricing; All-units discounts; Capacity constraint;
    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
    • L42 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Vertical Restraints; Resale Price Maintenance; Quantity Discounts

    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:indorg:v:65:y:2019:i:c:p:152-172. 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.