Price Equilibria in a Spatial Competition with Captive Buyers

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Kawai, Shinnosuke, Nakagawa, Kuninori
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866909607398473728
author Kawai, Shinnosuke
Nakagawa, Kuninori
author_facet Kawai, Shinnosuke
Nakagawa, Kuninori
contents This paper explores price competition with exogenous product differentiation in a spatial model similar to that of Nakagawa (2023). Nakagawa examines product differentiation within the framework of Varian (1980). Nakagawa integrates Varian's concept of uninformed consumers, who lack complete price information, into a spatial model based on Hotelling (1929). While Nakagawa placed informed consumers at the center of the Hotelling line and used quadratic transportation costs, our study employs a uniform distribution of informed consumers and linear transportation costs. This approach enables a more direct comparison with established spatial competition literature, particularly Osborne and Pitchik (1987). We classify equilibrium candidates and characterize the parameter regions corresponding to each equilibrium. There is no pure equilibrium in the region where we construct mixed strategy equilibria. Furthermore, we compare the expected profit in the equilibrium of our model with the findings of Osborne and Pitchik (1987). Finally, we discuss the impact of captive buyers on the nature of spatial competition.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_06961
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Price Equilibria in a Spatial Competition with Captive Buyers
Kawai, Shinnosuke
Nakagawa, Kuninori
Theoretical Economics
Computer Science and Game Theory
91B24
This paper explores price competition with exogenous product differentiation in a spatial model similar to that of Nakagawa (2023). Nakagawa examines product differentiation within the framework of Varian (1980). Nakagawa integrates Varian's concept of uninformed consumers, who lack complete price information, into a spatial model based on Hotelling (1929). While Nakagawa placed informed consumers at the center of the Hotelling line and used quadratic transportation costs, our study employs a uniform distribution of informed consumers and linear transportation costs. This approach enables a more direct comparison with established spatial competition literature, particularly Osborne and Pitchik (1987). We classify equilibrium candidates and characterize the parameter regions corresponding to each equilibrium. There is no pure equilibrium in the region where we construct mixed strategy equilibria. Furthermore, we compare the expected profit in the equilibrium of our model with the findings of Osborne and Pitchik (1987). Finally, we discuss the impact of captive buyers on the nature of spatial competition.
title Price Equilibria in a Spatial Competition with Captive Buyers
topic Theoretical Economics
Computer Science and Game Theory
91B24
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.06961