The value of investment in nonexclusive contracts

Guillem Roig

Economic Inquiry, 2022, vol. 60, issue 3, 1018-1037

Abstract: We consider the strategic incentives to invest in an environment where suppliers compete with nonexclusive contracts. When trade is nonexclusive, that is, the buyer relates with many suppliers simultaneously, the buyer's investment affects her outside option when excluding a supplier. The buyer's investment allows for cheaper substitution of the trade loss arising from the excluded supplier. In equilibrium, even though each supplier fully appropriates the investment return it receives in isolation, the buyer wants to invest to gain leverage over competing suppliers. Our model uncovers an essential role of nonexclusive contracts because they promote the buyer to invest.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.13074

Related works:
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:bla:ecinqu:v:60:y:2022:i:3:p:1018-1037

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://ordering.onl ... s.aspx?ref=1465-7295

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Inquiry is currently edited by Tim Salmon

More articles in Economic Inquiry from Western Economic Association International Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().