This paper studies contract design between a retailer and two or more competing manufacturers who supply substitutable products to the retailer for sales in a consumer market. We consider a setting in which the same contracts are used in each period of a planning horizon. We first show that it...

We analyze the role of quality, which we define as an attribute of a product that increases consumers’ willingness to buy, as a competitive tool in a quality-price setting. We consider an incumbent’s entry-deterrence strategies using quality as a deterrent when faced by a potential entrant....

How intense is market competition in the Chinese economy? We extend to China, the literature that measures the intensity of market competition in terms of the persistence of firm profitability from year to year. The fundamental notion is that intense competition will quickly evaporate any short...