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Price Versus Quantity Competition in a Vertically Related Market with Retailer’s Effort

  • Qian Liu und Leonard F. S. Wang EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 9. Oktober 2020

Abstract

Allowing downstream retailers to engage in demand-enhancing investment, this paper demonstrates that the classical conclusions regarding the comparison of Cournot and Bertrand competition in a vertically related market with decentralized bargaining are completely reversed. It shows that Bertrand competition is more efficient than Cournot competition, in the sense that both consumer surplus and social welfare are always higher in the former.

JEL classification: D43; L13; L14

Corresponding author: Leonard F. S. Wang, Wenlan Chair Professor, Wenlan School of Business, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, 182# Nanhu Avenue, East Lake High-tech Development Zone, Wuhan 430073, China, E-mail:

Funding source: Guangdong Province Soft Science Research Project

Award Identifier / Grant number: 2019A101002056

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the editor, Ronald Peeters and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful remarks and constructive suggestions. Qian Liu gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Guangdong Province Soft Science Research Project (2019A101002056).

Appendix

We provide more detailed proofs of the propositions in this paper. Note that the following analyses are performed on the basis of Assumption 1, i.e.,  0 < γ < γ , β ( γ ) β < 1 , in which γ 0.641 and

β ( γ ) = 128 γ 4 + 128 γ 5 192 γ 6 176 γ 7 + 56 γ 8 + 40 γ 9 2 γ 11 γ 12 γ 13 256 704 γ 2 64 γ 3 + 576 γ 4 + 128 γ 5 192 γ 6 80 γ 7 + 64 γ 8 + 8 γ 9 6 γ 10 6 γ 11 + 3 γ 12 + 3 γ 13

A-1: Proof of Proposition 1

(A1) p i C p i B = A γ 3 ( 64 + γ ( 32 γ ( 144 + γ ( 40 γ ( 88 γ ( 2 γ ( 6 + 5 γ ( 3 γ ( 3 + γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) 2 ( 1 γ ) ( 2 γ 2 ) ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) ( 4 γ ( 2 + γ ( 8 γ ( 2 + 5 γ ) ) ) ) < 0

(A2) q i C q i B = A γ 4 ( 96 + γ ( 112 γ ( 104 + γ ( 152 + γ ( 6 γ ( 46 + γ ( 29 + 5 ( 1 γ ) γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) 2 ( 2 γ 2 ) ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) ( 4 γ ( 2 + γ ( 8 γ ( 2 + 5 γ ) ) ) ) < 0

A-2: Proof of Proposition 2

(A3) π R i C π R i B = A 2 ( 1 β ) γ 4 ( 12288 + γ ( 2048 γ ( 72704 + γ ( 14848 γ Δ 1 ) ) ) ) 8 ( 1 γ ) ( 2 γ 2 ) ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) 2 ( 4 γ ( 2 + γ ( 8 γ ( 2 + 5 γ ) ) ) ) 2 < 0

where Δ 1 = 174080 + γ ( 39680 γ ( 219264 + γ ( 54400 γ ( 156000 + γ ( 41568 γ ( 64096 + γ ( 18528 γ ( 17084 + γ ( 6020 γ ( 4352 + γ ( 2144 γ ( 947 + γ ( 549 10 γ ( 13 + 10 γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) .

A-3: Proof of Proposition 3

(A4) C S C C S B = A 2 γ 4 ( 96 + γ ( 112 γ ( 104 + γ ( 152 + γ ( 6 γ ( 46 + γ ( 29 + 5 ( 1 γ ) γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Δ 2 4 ( 1 γ ) ( 2 γ 2 ) 2 ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) 2 ( 4 γ ( 2 + γ ( 8 γ ( 2 + 5 γ ) ) ) ) 2 < 0

(A5) S W C S W B = A 2 γ 4 ( 40960 + γ ( 28672 γ ( 212992 + γ ( 160768 γ ( 417792 + γ Δ 3 ) ) ) ) ) 4 ( 1 γ ) ( 2 γ 2 ) 2 ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) 2 ( 4 γ ( 2 + γ ( 8 γ ( 2 + 5 γ ) ) ) ) 2 < 0

where Δ 2 = 256 γ 2 ( 960 + γ ( 128 γ ( 1248 + γ ( 240 γ ( 672 + γ ( 136 γ ( 114 + γ ( 6 5 γ ( 1 γ γ 2 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) , Δ 3 = 335872 γ ( 377216 + γ ( 335872 γ ( 117056 + γ ( 150272 + γ ( 52048 γ ( 2672 + γ ( 46044 + γ ( 20064 γ ( 5676 + γ ( 2740 + γ ( 3445 + γ ( 2276 γ ( 1107 + 5 γ ( 168 γ ( 21 + 20 γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) .

A-4: Proof of Proposition 4

(A6) π R i C N π R i B = A 2 ( 1 β ) γ 3 ( 2048 γ ( 7680 + γ ( 1536 γ ( 25728 γ ( 6528 + γ Δ 4 ) ) ) ) ) 8 ( 1 γ ) ( 4 ( 2 γ ) γ ( 1 + γ ) ( 2 + γ ) ) 2 ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) 2

where

Δ 4 = 30784 γ ( 7488 + γ ( 17248 γ ( 1184 + γ ( 5872 + γ ( 176 γ ( 1624 + γ ( 88 γ ( 450 + γ ( 70 γ ( 95 + γ ( 29 3 γ ( 3 + γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) .

Combining the parameter range assumed by Assumption 1, we can find that the sigh of above expression mainly depends on the degree of product differentiation, i.e.,

π R i C N π R i B > 0 , when γ > γ ˆ ; π R i C N π R i B < 0 , when γ < γ ˆ ; γ ˆ 0.369.

A-5: Proof of Proposition 5

(A7) C S C N C S B = A 2 γ 2 ( 2 + γ ) 2 ( 8 + γ ( 16 γ ( 4 + γ ( 20 γ ( 10 + γ ( 3 + γ ( ( 3 2 γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Δ 5 4 ( 1 γ ) ( 4 ( 2 γ ) γ ( 1 + γ ) ( 2 + γ ) ) 2 ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) 2 < 0

(A8) S W C N S W B = A 2 γ 2 ( 2048 + γ ( 6144 γ ( 768 + γ ( 18688 γ ( 14272 + γ ( 22528 γ ( 13824 + γ Δ 6 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) 4 ( 1 γ ) ( 4 ( 2 γ ) γ ( 1 + γ ) ( 2 + γ ) ) 2 ( 8 γ ( 4 + 12 γ + 2 γ 3 + γ 4 + γ 5 ) ) 2 < 0

where

Δ 5 = 64 + γ ( 64 + γ ( 136 γ ( 96 + γ ( 68 γ ( 28 γ ( 2 + ( 1 γ ) γ ( 1 + 2 γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) , Δ 6 = 15360 + γ ( 976 γ ( 5888 + γ ( 3920 γ ( 232 + γ ( 496 + γ ( 140 + γ ( 315 + γ ( 86 γ ( 93 + 4 γ ( 10 γ ( 2 + γ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) .

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Received: 2020-03-14
Accepted: 2020-09-23
Published Online: 2020-10-09

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