Market prices, spatial distribution of consumers and firms' optimal locations in a linear city

We study a game of spatial competition in prices. In particular, we focus on the linear-city duopoly model to see what we can learn about the distribution of consumers, which is not required to be uniform –as in the original Hotelling model. Using variation in firms’ prices and costs, we identify po...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Bajo-Buenestado, R. (Raúl)|||/items/a43366a6-3bba-4c2f-9251-2581f36c6403
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Navarra
Repositorio:Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/114722
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10171/114722
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Regulated location
Linear-city model
Distribution of consumers
Spatial analysis
Spatial price competition
Descripción
Sumario:We study a game of spatial competition in prices. In particular, we focus on the linear-city duopoly model to see what we can learn about the distribution of consumers, which is not required to be uniform –as in the original Hotelling model. Using variation in firms’ prices and costs, we identify points of the distribution of consumers. Based on these points, we estimate the spatial distribution of consumers along the linear city. We apply our methodology to a dataset of prices of two gas stations on a straight highway. By estimating the distribution of consumers, we are able to find the optimal location of an entrant gas station. Using our estimated distribution of consumers and the entrant’s optimal point, we simulate welfare gains under counterfactual locations of an entrant.