We investigate how costly acquisition and exchange of customer-specific information affects industry profit and consumer welfare. Consumers differ in their preferences for competing brands and in their switching costs between brands. Brand-producing firms use their acquired knowledge of...

We introduce three types of consumer recognition: identity recognition, asymmetric preference recognition, and symmetric preference recognition. We characterize price equilibria and compare profits, consumer surplus, and total welfare. Asymmetric preference recognition enhances profits compared...

We introduce three types of consumer recognition: identity recognition, asymmetric preference recognition, and symmetric preference recognition. We characterize price equilibria and compare profits, consumer surplus, and total welfare. Asymmetric preference recognition enhances profits compared...

We investigate how costly acquisition and exchange of customer-specific information affects industry profit and consumer welfare. Consumers differ in their preferences for competing brands and in their switching costs between brands. Brand-producing firms use their acquired knowledge of...

Dieser Beitrag thematisiert die ökonomische Macht von Unternehmen in Österreich und stellt die Frage, ob diese - wie auch in anderen OECD-Ländern - zugenommen hat. Konzeptuell wird eine neuartige Differenzierung zwischen ökonomischer und politischer Macht sowie zwischen Marktmacht im engeren...

Dieser Beitrag thematisiert die ökonomische Macht von Unternehmen in Österreich und stellt die Frage, ob diese - wie auch in anderen OECD-Ländern - zugenommen hat. Konzeptuell wird eine neuartige Differenzierung zwischen ökonomischer und politischer Macht sowie zwischen Marktmacht im engeren...

The conventional wisdom is that the formation of patent pools is welfare enhancing when patents are complementary, since the pool avoids a double-marginalization problem associated with independent licensing. This conventional wisdom relies on the effects that pooling has on downstream prices....

This paper discusses the relation between trade and competition, revising the literature and using indicators, build with Brazilian industrial survey (PIA/IBGE) and foreign trade (Comtrade) data. The premise is that the structure of domestic competition is explained by concentration indices,...

The tensions between books and book markets as expressions of culture and books as products in profit-making businesses are analysed and insights from the theory of industrial organisation are given. Governments intervene in the market for books through laws concerning prices of books, grants...

This paper investigates how different damage rules in patent infringement cases shape competition when intellectual property rights are probabilistic. I develop a simple model of oligopolistic competition to compare two main liability doctrines that have been used in the US to assess...