Exchange rates and product variety

Witness Simbanegavi

International Journal of Finance & Economics, 2009, vol. 14, issue 2, 188-198

Abstract: We study the role of exchange rate variability in the firm's choice of whether to offer one or two varieties. We show that variability induces the firm to vertically segment markets (offer two varieties). This happens because variability in the exchange rate affects income dispersion and hence the firm's incentives to extract consumer surplus. To better extract surplus, the firm offers two price-quality menus, a high-quality variant geared for top-end surplus extraction and a low-quality variant to address market coverage concerns. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1002/ijfe.362

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