This paper proposes a possible explanation for uniform pricing in the recorded music industry, based on a pooling equilibrium across different quality types. We show that an ex ante ability to invest in the probability of success - which we identify with record companies' A&R expenditures -...

This paper constructs a model of the provision of commercial music in which some consumers (enthusiasts) enjoy diversity and others (faddists) prefer to follow what is popular. Record companies sign up bands, only some of whom will 'succeed' - a process modelled in a number of alternate ways -...

This paper considers the private and public incentives for firms to merge in the face of foreign entry. We set up a standard linear Cournot model of competition within a country and consider the gains to two merging firms and to national welfare in a series of scenarios: homogeneous and...

This paper deals with the behavior of fair trade organizations in an oligopolistic setting in which the vertically integrated fair trade firm produces a commodity which is a weak substitute for another commodity. Profit-maximizing oligopolists are vertically disintegrated and produce for both...

This paper considers the application of ‘cultural quotas’ to radio broadcasting: a requirement that a minimum percentage of broadcast content be of local origin. Using a Hotelling location model derived in Richardson (2004) we show that, while the laissez-faire solution involves less than...

This paper develops a Hotelling location model in which two radio stations choose combinations of local and international content to play, given consumers with preferences distributed over those combinations. Station revenue derives from sales of advertising time, the demand for which depends...

This note considers Hotelling’s (1929) model of locational choices by two firms and subsequent price competition in a setting where atomistic consumers locate first. It is shown that any equilibrium in pure strategies involves either one or two mass points with all surplus captured either by...