IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vuw/vuwcsr/18944.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Parallel Importation and Service Quality: An Empirical Investigation of Competition between DVDs and Cinemas in New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Evans, Lewis
  • Burgess, Matt

Abstract

Investigations into the causes and effects of parallel importing have concentrated on price discrimination but arbitrage can also occur on non-price dimensions. Using a natural experiment in the New Zealand film distribution industry between May 1998 and November 2001 we examine the effect of parallel importing on quality as it relates to the timing of the availability of film media. We demonstrate that a) cinema revenues were undermined as consumers substituted viewing films on parallel imported DVDs for thecinema format and b) that studios responded to the threat of parallel imported DVDs by bringing forward the release of films into New Zealand cinemas. The reduced delay between US and New Zealand cinematic release dates is shown to be consistent with the introduction of competition when timing is a dimension of quality and choice. We conclude that parallel importation of DVDs almost certainly resulted in a net increase in welfare in New Zealand.

Suggested Citation

  • Evans, Lewis & Burgess, Matt, 2005. "Parallel Importation and Service Quality: An Empirical Investigation of Competition between DVDs and Cinemas in New Zealand," Working Paper Series 18944, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    • Handle: RePEc:vuw:vuwcsr:18944
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ir.wgtn.ac.nz/handle/123456789/18944
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malueg, David A. & Schwartz, Marius, 1994. "Parallel imports, demand dispersion, and international price discrimination," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3-4), pages 167-195, November.
    2. Steven R. Grenadier, 2002. "Option Exercise Games: An Application to the Equilibrium Investment Strategies of Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 691-721.
    3. Jerry Hausman, 2003. "Sources of Bias and Solutions to Bias in the Consumer Price Index," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 23-44, Winter.
    4. Krugman, Paul R., 1979. "Increasing returns, monopolistic competition, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 469-479, November.
    5. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    6. 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.
    7. Keith E. Maskus & Yongmin Chen, 2004. "Vertical Price Control and Parallel Imports: Theory and Evidence," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 551-570, September.
    8. Saul Pleeter & John T. Warner, 2001. "The Personal Discount Rate: Evidence from Military Downsizing Programs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 33-53, March.
    9. Akbar Marvasti & E. Ray Canterbery, 2005. "Cultural and Other Barriers to Motion Pictures Trade," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(1), pages 39-54, January.
    10. Yongmin Chen, 1999. "Oligopoly Price Discrimination and Resale Price Maintenance," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(3), pages 441-455, Autumn.
    11. Abbott, Frederick M, 1998. "First Report (Final) to the Committee on International Trade Law of the International Law Association on the Subject of Parallel Importation," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(4), pages 607-636, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:vuw:vuwscr:18944 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Matthew Burgess & Lewis Evans, 2005. "Parallel Importation And Service Quality: An Empirical Investigation Of Competition Between Dvds And Cinemas In New Zealand," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(4), pages 747-770.
    3. Alfons Palangkaraya & Jongsay Yong, 2009. "Parallel Imports, Market Size And Investment Incentive," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 54(02), pages 167-181.
    4. Frank Müller-Langer, 2009. "Does Parallel Trade Freedom Harm Consumers in Small Markets?," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 11(1), pages 11-41, April.
    5. Frank Mueller-Langer, 2014. "Copyright and parallel trade," Chapters, in: Richard Watt (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Copyright, chapter 16, pages 287-310, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Nikolaos Zevgolis & Panagiotis Fotis, 2014. "Prohibition of parallel imports as a vertical restraint: per se approach or a misunderstanding?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 317-342, October.
    7. Tommaso M. Valletti & Stefan Szymanski, 2006. "Parallel Trade, International Exhaustion And Intellectual Property Rights: A Welfare Analysis," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 499-526, December.
    8. Atal, Vidya & Bar, Talia & Gordon, Sidartha, 2016. "Project selection: Commitment and competition," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 30-48.
    9. Paolo M. Panteghini & Michele Moretto, 2007. "Preemption, Start-Up Decisions and the Firms' Capital Structure," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(39), pages 1-14.
    10. De Sousa, José & Disdier, Anne-Célia & Gaigné, Carl, 2020. "Export decision under risk," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    11. Marco Antonio Guimaraes Dias & Jose Paulo Teixeira, 2010. "Continuous-Time Option Games: Review of Models and Extensions," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 14(3-4), pages 219-254, September.
    12. Bouis, Romain & Huisman, Kuno J.M. & Kort, Peter M., 2009. "Investment in oligopoly under uncertainty: The accordion effect," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 320-331, March.
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12655 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Erdal Yalcin & Davide Sala, 2014. "Uncertain Productivity Growth and the Choice between FDI and Export," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 189-208, February.
    15. Brekke, Kurt R. & Holmås, Tor Helge & Straume, Odd Rune, 2015. "Price regulation and parallel imports of pharmaceuticals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 92-105.
    16. Frank Mueller‐Langer, 2012. "Parallel Trade and its Ambiguous Effects on Global Welfare," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 177-185, February.
    17. Gene M. Grossman & Edwin L.‐C. Lai, 2008. "Parallel imports and price controls," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(2), pages 378-402, June.
    18. David McAdams, 2011. "Performance and Turnover in a Stochastic Partnership," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 107-142, November.
    19. Ryan Kellogg, 2014. "The Effect of Uncertainty on Investment: Evidence from Texas Oil Drilling," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1698-1734, June.
    20. Yu‐Fu Chen & Michael Funke, 2010. "Booms, Recessions And Financial Turmoil: A Fresh Look At Investment Decisions Under Cyclical Uncertainty," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 57(3), pages 290-317, July.
    21. Corato, Luca Di & Maoz, Yishay D., 2023. "Externality control and endogenous market structure under uncertainty: The price vs. quantity dilemma," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    22. Roques, F.A. & Savva , N.S., 2006. "Price Cap Regulation and Investment Incentives under Demand Uncertainty," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0636, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    More about this item

    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:vuw:vuwcsr:18944. 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: Library Technology Services (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fcvuwnz.html .

    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.