In this paper we show that, in the presence of buyer and seller power, a monopolist can enter into a costly contractual relationship with a low-quality supplier with the sole intention of improving its bargaining position relative to a high-quality supplier, without ever selling the good...

Cost functions of three Canadian food-processing sectors (meat, bakery, and dairy) are estimated using provincial data. A translog functional form is used, and the concavity property of the cost function is imposed locally. The Morishima substitution elasticities and scale elasticities are...