Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.

In many markets, consumers have costs of switching between products that are functionally identical. This note shows that entry of efficient low-cost competitors into these markets may be socially detrimental. In a linear model, entry reduces social welfare (as conventionally defined) in more than h...

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Main Author: Klemperer, P
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 1988
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author Klemperer, P
author_facet Klemperer, P
author_sort Klemperer, P
collection OXFORD
description In many markets, consumers have costs of switching between products that are functionally identical. This note shows that entry of efficient low-cost competitors into these markets may be socially detrimental. In a linear model, entry reduces social welfare (as conventionally defined) in more than half of the relevant parameter space. In a more general model, there is always a range of values of switching costs for which entry reduces welfare, even if the entrant's production costs are lower than the incumbent's.
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spelling oxford-uuid:8afaf96d-4e5a-4d0b-b34c-0ec8fb24ece52022-03-26T22:35:07ZWelfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8afaf96d-4e5a-4d0b-b34c-0ec8fb24ece5EnglishDepartment of Economics - ePrints1988Klemperer, PIn many markets, consumers have costs of switching between products that are functionally identical. This note shows that entry of efficient low-cost competitors into these markets may be socially detrimental. In a linear model, entry reduces social welfare (as conventionally defined) in more than half of the relevant parameter space. In a more general model, there is always a range of values of switching costs for which entry reduces welfare, even if the entrant's production costs are lower than the incumbent's.
spellingShingle Klemperer, P
Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.
title Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.
title_full Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.
title_fullStr Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.
title_full_unstemmed Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.
title_short Welfare Effects of Entry into Markets with Switching Costs.
title_sort welfare effects of entry into markets with switching costs
work_keys_str_mv AT klempererp welfareeffectsofentryintomarketswithswitchingcosts