A generalized index of market power

Hernán Vallejo

Revista de Economía del Rosario, 2007, No 4422

Abstract: This paper analyses two approaches to measuring market power-the commonly used Lerner index and a range of exploitation measures-. Itis argued that the Lerner index is designed to quantify market power fromthe supply side and the exploitation measures are designed to quantify marketpower from the demand side, and that the two approaches do not always behavein a symmetric way, since they do not always have the same bounds. To sortout these potentially undesirable properties, this paper proposes a new generalindex to measure market power, which is symmetrical in the sense that it isbounded between zero and one, regardless of whether the market power comesfrom the supply or the demand side. The index proposed allows for the presenceof more than one firm and for the existence of conjectural variations.*******************************************************************************************************************Este documento analiza dos enfoques para medir poder de mercado-el frecuentemente utilizado índice de Lerner y un conjunto de medidas de explotación-. Se argumenta que el índice de Lerner está disenado para cuantificarel poder de mercado por el lado de la oferta y que las medidas de explotaciónestán disenadas para cuantificar el poder de mercado por el lado de la demanda,y que esos dos enfoques no siempre tienen los mismos límites. Paracorregir estas propiedades potencialmente no deseables, este documento proponeun nuevo índice general para medir poder de mercado, que es simétrico-estando restringido a valores entre cero y uno-, independientemente de si elpoder de mercado proviene del lado de la oferta o de la demanda. El índice propuestopermite la presencia de más de una firma y la existencia de variacionesconjeturales.

Keywords: market power; mark up; mark down; Lerner index; exploitation measures; industrial organization; conjectural variations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D49 L10 L11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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http://revistas.urosario.edu.co/index.php/economia/article/view/1117/1011

Related works:
Working Paper: A GENERALIZED INDEX OF MARKET POWER (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000151:004422

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