IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/ifwkwp/734.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Investment specificity, vertical integration and market foreclosure

Author

Listed:
  • Bickenbach, Frank
  • Williams, Iestyn

Abstract

In this paper we consider the impact of vertical integration on a retailer's choices of product variety and specific, brand-supporting investment. In an incomplete contract environment, vertical merger encourages investment in integrated supply, and foreclosure of non-integrated manufacturers. Anti-competitive as opposed to efficiency interpretations depend delicately on a trade-off between the benefits of supplier-specific rather than generally applicable retailer investment, and the value of multi-product rather than single product retailing. Where retailers compete, it is shown that vertical integration implements competition reducing, product differentiating investment strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bickenbach, Frank & Williams, Iestyn, 1996. "Investment specificity, vertical integration and market foreclosure," Kiel Working Papers 734, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:734
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/885/1/198051816.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oliver Hart & Jean Tirole, 1990. "Vertical Integration and Market Foreclosure," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 21(1990 Micr), pages 205-286.
    2. Patrick Bolton & Michael D. Whinston, 1993. "Incomplete Contracts, Vertical Integration, and Supply Assurance," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(1), pages 121-148.
    3. Williams, I., 1996. "Integration and investment specificity," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 9614, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    4. Michael A. Salinger, 1988. "Vertical Mergers and Market Foreclosure," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(2), pages 345-356.
    5. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    6. Gal-Or, Esther, 1991. "Duopolistic vertical restraints," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1237-1253, August.
    7. Reiffen, David, 1992. "Equilibrium Vertical Foreclosure: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 694-697, June.
    8. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    9. Dixit, Avinash, 1983. "Vertical integration in a monopolistically competitive industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 63-78, March.
    10. Bonanno, Giacomo & Vickers, John, 1988. "Vertical Separation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 257-265, March.
    11. Fershtman, Chaim & Judd, Kenneth L, 1987. "Equilibrium Incentives in Oligopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 927-940, December.
    12. repec:fth:harver:1493 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Riordan, Michael H. & Williamson, Oliver E., 1985. "Asset specificity and economic organization," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 365-378, 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. Normann, Hans-Theo, 2009. "Vertical integration, raising rivals' costs and upstream collusion," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 461-480, May.
    2. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899.
    3. Caillaud, Bernard & Rey, Patrick, 1995. "Strategic aspects of vertical delegation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 421-431, April.
    4. Abiru, Masahiro & Nahata, Babu & Raychaudhuri, Subhashis & Waterson, Michael, 1998. "Equilibrium structures in vertical oligopoly," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 463-480, December.
    5. Maija Halonen, 1994. "Endogenous Industry Structure in Vertical Duopoly," STICERD - Economics of Industry Papers 07, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    6. Choi, Jay Pil & Yi, Sang-Seung, 2016. "An equilibrium model of investment-reducing vertical integration," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 659-676.
    7. Vettas, Nikolaos & Petrakis, Emmanuel & Milliou, Chrysovalantou, 2003. "Endogenous Contracts Under Bargaining in Competing Vertical Chains," CEPR Discussion Papers 3976, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Ursino Giovanni, 2015. "Supply Chain Control: A Theory of Vertical Integration," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(4), pages 1831-1866, October.
    9. Sapi, Geza, 2012. "Bargaining, vertical mergers and entry," DICE Discussion Papers 61, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    10. Nocke, Volker & Rey, Patrick, 2018. "Exclusive dealing and vertical integration in interlocking relationships," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 183-221.
    11. Hendrik Döpper & Geza Sapi & Christian Wey, 2024. "A bargaining perspective on vertical integration," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 199-224, February.
    12. César Costa Alves de Mattos, 2001. "Integração Vertical em Telecomunicações e Fechamento através de Preços de Acesso," Anais do XXIX Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 29th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 065, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    13. Jay Pil Choi & Sang-Seung Yi, 2000. "Vertical Foreclosure with the Choice of Input Specifications," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(4), pages 717-743, Winter.
    14. Bakaouka, Elpiniki & Milliou, Chrysovalantou, 2018. "Vertical licensing, input pricing, and entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 66-96.
    15. Lynne Pepall & George Norman, 2001. "Product Differentiation and Upstream‐Downstream Relations," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 201-233, June.
    16. Michiel Bijlsma & Viktoria Kocsis & Victoria Shestalova & Gijsbert Zwart, 2008. "Vertical foreclosure: a policy framework," CPB Document 157, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    17. Leonardo Medrano, 1999. "Market Foreclosure and Strategic Aspects of Vertical Agreements," Economía Mexicana NUEVA ÉPOCA, CIDE, División de Economía, vol. 0(1), pages 91-104, January-J.
    18. Ali Hortaçsu & Chad Syverson, 2007. "Cementing Relationships: Vertical Integration, Foreclosure, Productivity, and Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(2), pages 250-301.
    19. Saggi, Kamal & Vettas, Nikolaos, 2002. "On intrabrand and interbrand competition: The strategic role of fees and royalties," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 189-200, January.
    20. Johan Hombert & Jérôme Pouyet & Nicolas Schutz, 2019. "Anticompetitive Vertical Merger Waves," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3-4), pages 484-514, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    incomplete contracts; vertical integration; monopolization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies

    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:zbw:ifwkwp:734. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwkiede.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.