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Market Structure and the Durability of Goods

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  • Andrew B. Abel
Abstract
This paper compares the durability of goods produced in competitive and monopolistic markets. Durability is chosen to minimize the cost of providing a given present value of flow of services over the life of the durable. As pointed out by Swan, under constant returns to scale, the cost-minimizing durability is independent of the level of output; thus competitive firms will choose the same durability as a monopolist, even though they would produce different levels of output. In this paper, we relax the assumption of constant returns to scale and derive more general conditions under which optimal durability is independent of the level of output. We also demonstrate that with a particular specification of external diseconomies of scale, the monopolist will produce goods with greater durability than would be produced by competitive firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew B. Abel, 1983. "Market Structure and the Durability of Goods," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(4), pages 625-637.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:50:y:1983:i:4:p:625-637.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/2297765
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    Cited by:

    1. Feenstra, Robert C, 1995. "Exact Hedonic Price Indexes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(4), pages 634-653, November.
    2. Robert C. Feenstra, 1993. "Measuring the Welfare Effect of Quality Change: Theory and Application of Japanese Autos," NBER Working Papers 4401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Marco Runkel, 2003. "Product Durability and Extended Producer Responsibility in Solid Waste Management," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 24(2), pages 161-182, February.

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