(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)"> (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)">
[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aub/autbar/192.92.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Do Market Shares Matters? An Information-Based Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Vives, X.
  • Ramon, C.
Abstract
We analyse the informational content of market shares and prices in a dynamic duopoly model in which consumers have heterogenous information on the quality differential (q) of two goods. It is shown that when firms are poorly informed about q, and therefore the ability of prices to reveal information is limited, consumers rationally believe that a firm with a high market share is likely to produce a high-quality good. As a result, firms try to signal-jam the inferences of consumers and compete for market shares beyond the level explained by short-run profit maximization. The consequence is that the market is more competitive in the first stages of the game and approaches the benchmark one-shot full information equilibrium prices as consumers and firms learn about q. Further, it is found that consumers display herd behaviour with the consequence that they learn q slowly, slowing down, in turn, the rate of convergence of prices to their benchmark levels. When firms are informed about q, and prices have the potential to signal quality, multiple equilibria may exist, but there is always one equilibrium in which market shares are a positive signal of quality.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Vives, X. & Ramon, C., 1992. "Why Do Market Shares Matters? An Information-Based Theory," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 192.92, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    • Handle: RePEc:aub:autbar:192.92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    oligopolies ; economic models;

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aub:autbar:192.92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Xavier Vila (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ufuabes.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.