Dynamic Retail Price and Investment Competition

Kyle Bagwell

No 1115, Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science

Abstract: We develop a simple model of retail competition in which retailers select prices and investments in cost reduction. Unable to observe firms' current prices prior to costly search, consumers monitor firms' historic pricing behavior. An equilibrium is constructed in which several identical firms enter and then engage in a phase of vigorous price competition, corresponding to a battle for low-price reputations. This phase is concluded with a "shakeout," as a low-price, low-cost firm comes to dominate the market while other firms lose market share. A central feature of the equilibrium is that low prices are complementary to large investments in cost reduction. Even though the dominant firm's price rises through time, and initially may be below marginal cost, we argue that an interpretation of predatory pricing may be appropriate, since the dominant firm is also the most-efficient (lowest-cost) firm in the market.

Date: 1993-10
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/papers/1115.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Dynamic Retail Price and Investment Competition (1997)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nwu:cmsems:1115

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Northwestern University, 580 Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2014. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Fran Walker ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).