Peer-to-Peer Product Sharing: Implications for Ownership, Usage, and Social Welfare in the Sharing Economy

Saif Benjaafar (), Guangwen Kong (), Xiang Li () and Costas Courcoubetis ()
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Saif Benjaafar: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Guangwen Kong: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Xiang Li: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Costas Courcoubetis: Engineering and Systems Design, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372

Management Science, 2019, vol. 65, issue 2, 477-493

Abstract: We describe an equilibrium model of peer-to-peer product sharing, or collaborative consumption, where individuals with varying usage levels make decisions about whether or not to own a homogeneous product. Owners are able to generate income from renting their products to nonowners while nonowners are able to access these products through renting on an as-needed basis. We characterize equilibrium outcomes, including ownership and usage levels, consumer surplus, and social welfare. We compare each outcome in systems with and without collaborative consumption and examine the impact of various problem parameters. Our findings indicate that collaborative consumption can result in either lower or higher ownership and usage levels, with higher ownership and usage levels more likely when the cost of ownership is high. Our findings also indicate that consumers always benefit from collaborative consumption, with individuals who, in the absence of collaborative consumption, are indifferent between owning and not owning benefitting the most. We study both profit-maximizing and social-welfare–maximizing platforms and compare equilibrium outcomes under both in terms of ownership, usage, and social welfare. We find that the difference in social welfare between the profit-maximizing and social-welfare–maximizing platforms is relatively modest.

Keywords: sharing economy; collaborative consumption; peer-to-peer markets; on-demand platforms; social welfare; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (74)

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