We show that the entry of a second firm in a horizontally differentiated market (ala Hotelling) may harm consumers as prices increase and consumer's surplus possibly decrease. We first derive the price and the consumer's surplus of a monopoly which is located at the center of the market. When a...

In this paper we characterize the existence of best choices of arbitrary binary relations over non finite sets of alternatives, according to the Generalized Optimal-Choice Axiom condition introduced by Schwartz. We focus not just in the best choices of a single set X, but rather in the best...

We model pre-investment R&D decisions in the presence of spillover effects in an option pricing framework with analytic tractability. Two firms face two decisions that are solved for interdependently in a two-stage game. The first-stage decision is: what is the optimal level of coordination...

We use the Hotelling's model allowing for a "gap" in the consumers' preferences. As a result, the characteristics space is divided in two separate intervals. The largest one represents the main market, and the smallest represents a niche. We find that in this set up the principle of maximum...

We demonstrate to decision makers how to optimally make costly strategic pre-investment R&D decisions in the presence of spillover effects in an option pricing framework with analytic tractability. Decisions are modeled as impulse-type controls with random outcome. Two firms face two decisions...

We examine the price decisions in a vertically differentiated duopoly where the decision to buy a good depends not only upon the intrinsic utility from consuming it but also upon the social attributes (prestige, uniqueness etc.) associated with its consumption. These social attributes are...