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Transparency and Product Variety

Author

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  • Christian Schultz

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract
We study the long run e¤ects of transparency in a circular town model of a differentiated market. The market is not fully transparent on the consumer side: A fraction of consumers are uninformed about prices. Increasing transparency reduces the equilibrium price, profit and entry of firms. This improves welfare. If consumers' transportation cost is high, it also improves the average utility of consumers. When transportation costs are very small, the fully transparent market features cut throat competition if there are several firms in the market, and if firms choose pure entry strategies only one firm enters and acts like a monopolist. Consumers therefore prefer that market transparency is as high as possible under the restriction that the market should allow entry for two firms. If firms choose mixed entry strategies, consumers prefer full transparency.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Schultz, 2007. "Transparency and Product Variety," CIE Discussion Papers 2007-13, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:kud:kuieci:2007-13
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    File URL: http://www.econ.ku.dk/cie/dp/dp_2010/2007-13.pdf/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Yiquan Gu & Tobias Wenzel, 2017. "Consumer confusion, obfuscation and price regulation," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 64(2), pages 169-190, May.
    2. Gu, Yiquan & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Transparency, price-dependent demand and product variety," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 216-219, March.
    3. Gu, Yiquan & Wenzel, Tobias, 2012. "Transparency, entry, and productivity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 7-10.
    4. Wan, Xing & Chen, Jing & Chen, Bintong, 2020. "Exploring service positioning in platform-based markets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    5. Fischer, Christian & Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2020. "Complex pricing and consumer-side attention," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-075, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Belleflamme, Paul & Peitz, Martin, 2019. "Price disclosure by two-sided platforms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Xu, Lili & Matsumura, Toshihiro, 2023. "Market transparency in a mixed oligopoly," MPRA Paper 118415, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Karakoç, Gülen & Pagnozzi, Marco & Piccolo, Salvatore, 2022. "The value of transparency in dynamic contracting with entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    9. Rasch, Alexander & Herre, Jesko, 2013. "Customer-side transparency, elastic demand, and tacit collusion under differentiation," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 51-59.
    10. Fischer, Christian & Rasch, Alexander, 2018. "Complex pricing and consumer-side transparency," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181642, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Schultz, Christian, 2014. "Consumer poaching, brand switching, and price transparency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 266-269.
    12. Aurélien Nioche & Basile Garcia & Thomas Boraud & Nicolas Rougier & Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde, 2019. "Interaction effects between consumer information and firms' decision rules in a duopoly: how cognitive features can impact market dynamics," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Francisco Martínez Sánchez, 2016. "Collusion, Customization and Transparency," Working Papers. Serie AD 2016-03, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    14. Elisa Baraibar‐Diez & María D. Odriozola & José Luis Fernández Sánchez, 2017. "A Survey of Transparency: An Intrinsic Aspect of Business Strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 480-489, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    market transparency; product differentiation; product variety; competition policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General

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