A difficulty with the address models of product differentiation

B-Tier
Journal: Economic Theory
Year: 1999
Volume: 14
Issue: 3
Pages: 717-727

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

In models of product differentiation and location models it is implicitly assumed that consumers can afford to buy the differentiated goods in the market. I show that with income heterogeneity there are severe existence problems of a price equilibrium in models of horizontal product differentiation with unit demand because some consumers are income-constrained. The result generalizes to other models of product differentiation, search, and switching costs. I present an alternative specification of variable individual demand in which this kind of existence problem cannot arise.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:spr:joecth:v:14:y:1999:i:3:p:717-727
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-28