This article considers a durable goods monopolist's choice of price and durability in a setting where durability choice controls the speed with which quality deteriorates. The article derives three main results. First, the price at which old units trade on the secondhand market limits what the...

By investing in R & D, a durable-goods monopolist can improve the quality of what it will sell in the future, and in this way reduce the future value of current and past units of output. This article shows that if the firm sells its output, then it faces a time inconsistency problem, i.e., the R...