Habits, Market Power, and Policy Selection

This paper examines monopolistic behavior in a framework with habit formation and consumer commitment. We show that time consistent output and pricing policies yield di®erent market outcomes. Policy selection determines the strategic properties of the producer's intra-personal game: current and future quantities are strategic com- plements, while current and future prices are strategic substitutes. In both a simple two-period model and an in¯nite-horizon model, we ¯nd that pricing policies allow the monopolist to attain higher equilibrium pro¯ts.