Market Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.

This paper surveys the economics of market power from the perspective of contract theory. Various practices that might be of competition policy concern including price discrimination, quantity discounts, bundling, vertical integration, and contracts with customers -- are discussed in terms of constr...

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Main Author: Vickers, J
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 1996
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author Vickers, J
author_facet Vickers, J
author_sort Vickers, J
collection OXFORD
description This paper surveys the economics of market power from the perspective of contract theory. Various practices that might be of competition policy concern including price discrimination, quantity discounts, bundling, vertical integration, and contracts with customers -- are discussed in terms of constraints on profit maximization, chiefly arising from incomplete information and credible commitment problems. First, the exploitation of pure monopoly power over final consumers or downstream, firms is discussed. Then motives for anticompetitive behavior towards rival firms are considered, including avoidance of profit dissipation, extraction of rival surplus, and exploitation of customer disunity.
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spelling oxford-uuid:2454aaeb-3868-456e-90b3-46f77e008be72022-03-26T11:49:27ZMarket Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:2454aaeb-3868-456e-90b3-46f77e008be7EnglishDepartment of Economics - ePrints1996Vickers, JThis paper surveys the economics of market power from the perspective of contract theory. Various practices that might be of competition policy concern including price discrimination, quantity discounts, bundling, vertical integration, and contracts with customers -- are discussed in terms of constraints on profit maximization, chiefly arising from incomplete information and credible commitment problems. First, the exploitation of pure monopoly power over final consumers or downstream, firms is discussed. Then motives for anticompetitive behavior towards rival firms are considered, including avoidance of profit dissipation, extraction of rival surplus, and exploitation of customer disunity.
spellingShingle Vickers, J
Market Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.
title Market Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.
title_full Market Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.
title_fullStr Market Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.
title_full_unstemmed Market Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.
title_short Market Power and Inefficiency: A Contracts Perspective.
title_sort market power and inefficiency a contracts perspective
work_keys_str_mv AT vickersj marketpowerandinefficiencyacontractsperspective