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Market Structure and Product Assortment: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Liquor Licensure

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  • Gastón Illanes
  • Sarah Moshary

Abstract

We examine how market structure, measured as the number of firms, affects prices, quantities, product assortment, and consumer surplus. Our analysis exploits Washington’s deregulation of spirit sales, which generated exogenous variation in market structure across the state. Consistent with the uniform pricing literature, we find no effect of increased competition on prices. Rather, we document an expansion of product assortment, which in turn increases purchasing. Using a discrete-choice demand model, we estimate that wider assortments increase consumer surplus by $3.20/month when moving from monopoly to duopoly. However, the likelihood that a household engages in heavy drinking, as defined by the CDC, increases by 5.6 percentage points, raising concerns about social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Gastón Illanes & Sarah Moshary, 2020. "Market Structure and Product Assortment: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Liquor Licensure," NBER Working Papers 27016, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27016
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    Cited by:

    1. Diego Jimenez-Hernandez & Enrique Seira, 2022. "Should the government sell you goods? Evidence from the milk market in Mexico," Working Paper Series WP 2023-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • L43 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Legal Monopolies and Regulation or Deregulation
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco

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