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Economic distributions, primitive distributions, and demand recovery in Monopolistic Competition

Author

Listed:
  • André De Palma
  • Simon P. Anderson

    (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA)

Abstract

We link fundamental technological and taste distributions to endogenous economic distributions of prices and firm size (output, profit) generated under monopolistic competition with heterogeneous productivities as per recent Trade and IO models. We new derive properties for monopoly pricing and equivalence properties on demand curvature, profit functions, and marginal revenue, which we use to ensure distributions of cost, price, output, and profit can be matched under monopolistic competition. Demand and one distribution determine the rest. We provide constructive proofs to recover demand and all distributions from just two (e.g., price and cost distributions uncover demand form), and derive consistency conditions that distribution pairs must satisfy. We then extend to include mark-up distributions.

Suggested Citation

  • André De Palma & Simon P. Anderson, 2021. "Economic distributions, primitive distributions, and demand recovery in Monopolistic Competition," THEMA Working Papers 2021-03, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
  • Handle: RePEc:ema:worpap:2021-03
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Anderson, Simon P. & de Palma, André, 2024. "Economic distributions, primitive distributions, and demand recovery in monopolistic competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Primitive and economic distributions; monopoly; monopolistic competition; pass-through and demand recovery; mark-up; price and profit dispersion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation

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