Competition with Aftermarket Power when Consumers are Heterogeneous
| Autoren/Herausgeber: |
Zegners, D. Kretschmer, T. |
|---|---|
| Erschienen: | 2017 |
| Publikationsart: | Articles in Refereed Journals (International) |
| erschienen in: | Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 26(1), pp.96-122 |
Abstract
We study a model of competitive foremarkets and partly monopolized aftermarkets. We show that high aftermarket power prompts firms to engage in inefficiently aggressive below-cost pricing in the foremarket. This inefficiency is driven by the presence of consumers with valuations below marginal costs. While for intermediate aftermarket power their presence leads to a competition-softening effect, for high aftermarket power firms attract increasing numbers of unprofitable consumers by aggressively pricing below cost. Firms’ equilibrium profits can therefore be decreasing in aftermarket power for high values of aftermarket power but are always higher than for low aftermarket power.