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Abstract
Experimental literature on product differentiation is scarce and mostly focused on horizontal product differentiation. This paper focuses on vertical product differentiation considering a quality-then-pricing duopoly game and exploring how firms’ cost structure affects firms’ decisions and market structure. Two scenarios are considered, differing in the way quality affects production costs: in the first, quality is costless, while, in the second, marginal production costs increase with quality. We explore the impacts on market coverage, qualities, product differentiation, prices, and intensity of competition (assessed by price-cost margins). Our experimental results confirm the (theoretically proved) need to endogenize the market structure, as a duopoly with full coverage emerges when quality is costless, but a duopoly with partial coverage emerges when quality is costly. We also find that quality differentiation is lower in the lab than what is theoretically predicted, and lower in the costless quality treatment. The intensity of competition is higher when quality is costly, as price-cost margins are lower in this case.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 102109 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics |
Volume | 107 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2023 |
Keywords
- Cost structures
- Experimental economics
- Quality–price game
- Vertical product differentiation
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CEGE: Research Center in Management and Economics
Silva, M. (Full Professor), Sousa, R. (Full Professor), Alves, P. (Assistant Professor), Madsen, A. (Invited Assistant Professor), Lourenço, A. (Associate Professor), Carvalho, A. S. (Associate Professor), Andrade, A. (Assistant Professor), Silva, P. D. (Associate Professor), Vlačić, B. (Invited Assistant Professor), Martins, C. (Invited Assistant Professor), Gomes, C. (Auxiliary Researcher), Gevrek, Z. E. (Invited Assistant Professor), Oliveira, F. G. D. (Associate Professor), Faria, G. (Invited Associate Professor), Marreiros, H. (Scholarship holder), Pinho, J. (Invited Assistant Professor), Machado, J. (Associate Professor), Araújo, J. (Auxiliary Researcher), Pinto, J. (Assistant Professor), Rego, A. (Full Professor), Gaspar, J. M. (Auxiliary Researcher), Corbo, L. (Invited Assistant Professor), Costa, L. (Associate Professor), Fernandes, L. (Assistant Professor), Sottomayor, M. (Assistant Professor), Martins, N. (Full Professor), Hernández-Marrero, P. (Auxiliary Researcher), Gonçalves, R. (Associate Professor), Ribeiro, R. (PI), Coelho, S. L. (Assistant Teacher), Pereira, S. M. (Auxiliary Researcher), Silva, S. (Associate Professor), Rodrigues, V. (Associate Professor), Sotiros, D. G. (Auxiliary Researcher), Valverde, C. (Assistant Professor), Leitão, A. (Assistant Professor), Julião, J. (Assistant Professor), Tavares, M. (Assistant Professor), Lages, C. R. (Auxiliary Researcher), Elmashhara, M. G. (Auxiliary Researcher) & Teymourifar, A. (Auxiliary Researcher)
1/01/20 → 31/12/25
Project: Other