Increased competition tends to benefit all buyers with increasing product variety and decreasing prices. However, if local and external market channels compete for the same class of products, increased competition from the external market crowds out local variety. Under local monopoly, local...

We analyze the impact of increased outside opportunities brought to consumers by improved access to a global market on local mar- ket performance under monopoly vs. oligopoly. If consumers choose once where to buy, we show that under all forms of organizing the local market, increased...