Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
In many markets, consumers have costs of switching between products that are functionally identical. This note shows that entry of efficient low-cost competitors into these markets may be socially detrimental. In a linear model, entry reduces social welfare (as conventionally defined) in more than half of the relevant parameter space. In a more general model, there is always a range of values of switching costs for which entry reduces welfare, even if the entrant's production costs are lower than the incumbent's. Copyright 1988 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.