We study the introduction of new products in a vertically differentiated industry. Innovative firms have to engage into reducing time-to-market investments in order to shorten the time interval between innovation and sales. Still, these investments generate irreversible costs which have to be...

This Paper examines the effect of price competition on innovation, market structure and profitability in R&D-intensive industries. The theoretical predictions are tested using UK data on the evolution of competition, concentration, innovation counts and profitability over 1952-77. The...

We study the interaction of customer capital and productivity through brand reallocation across firms. We develop a firm dynamics model with brands as transferable customer capital, heterogeneous firm productivity, and variable markups. We study the matching process between transferable brand...

Information and communication technology plays an important role in achieving a higher level of energy efficiency. In particular, energy efficiency can be achieved by integrating information technology into electricity networks to enable the interaction between suppliers and customers (smart...

Will the low search cost in the new economy help speed up new product introduction? The usual model of product market search suggests that a low search cost can turn out to have detrimental incentives on innovation and new product introduction as the low search cost erodes firms' market power,...

This paper empirically illustrates a new aspect of vertical integration that may hurt consumer welfare other than foreclosure and misuse of rivals' information by considering the possibility that a vertical merger turns out detrimental to the merged entity. My empirical results using data from...

This paper analyzes the effects of a merger between a German supermarket chain and a soft discounter on consumer prices. We exploit geographic variation in prices within retail chains and brands and use a difference-in-differences estimator to compare regional markets with a change in market...

We describe industrial market structure using a unique database spanning 31 consumer package goods (CPG) industries, 39 months, and the 50 largest US metropolitan markets. We organize our description of market structure around the notion that firms can improve brand perceptions through...

This paper aims to provide a consistent empirical methodology for investigating the level of Minimum Efficient Scale (MES) in a single product industry, through the assessment of relative productive performance. Two deterministic approaches are used to evaluate firm-level technical efficiency :...

In this case study of the Swedish beer market we relate the volatility of firms' market shares to changes in their products' market shares. We focus on the four leading firms' product portfolios, and in particular the development of the market shares of old, newly introduced, and withdrawn...