We propose a framework for analyzing transformations of demand. Such transformations frequently stem from changes in the dispersion of consumers` valuations, which lead to rotations of the demand curve. In a wide variety of settings, profits are a U-shaped function of dispersion. A high level of...

Switching costs and network effects bind customers to vendors if products are incompatible, locking customers or even markets in to early choices. Lock-in hinders customers from changing suppliers in response to (predictable or unpredictable) changes in efficiency, and gives vendors lucrative ex...

Search engines enable advertisers to target consumers based on the query they have entered.  In a framework with horizontal product differentiation, imperfect product information and in which consumers incur search costs, I study a game in which advertisers have to choose a price and a set of...

The welfare and output effects of monopoly third-degree price discrimination are analyzed when inverse demand functions are parallel.  Welfare is higher with discrimination than with a uniform price when demand functions are derived from the logistic distribution, and from a more general class...

Demand for oil is very price inelastic.  Facing such demand, an extractive cartell induces the highest price that does not destroy its demand, unlike the conventional Hotelling analysis: the cartel tolerates ordinary substitutes to its oil but deters high-potential ones.  Limit-pricing...

The welfare effects of third-degree price discrimination are known to be negative when demand functions are linear, marginal cost is constant and all markets are served. This paper shows that discrimination lowers welfare for a more general class of demand functions. Demand varies across markets...

The aim of this paper is to provide empirically testable predictions regarding the relationship between market size and concentration. In a model of endogenous horizontal mergers, it is shown that concentrated outcomes cannot be supported in a free entry equilibrium in large exogenous sunk cost...

This paper presents simple conditions for monopoly third-degree price discrimination to have negative or positive effects on aggregate consumer surplus.  Consumer surplus is often reduced by discrimination, for example when total welfare (consumer surplus and profits) falls.  Surplus increases...

The main section of the paper analyzes the principles and practice of competition policy for utilities under six headings: price discrimination and cross-subsidy; oligopolistic behaviour; mergers and takeovers; vertical structure; network access pricing; and historical entry barriers. The...

This paper contains a review of the burgeoning research that has been designed to shed light on how the art auction system actually works and what it indicates about price formation. First, we find that in recent years returns on art assets appear to be little different from returns on other...