Ozhegova, Alina Sharapudinov, Shamil Tarasov, Alexander Ushchev, Philip Kokovin, Sergey
A Theory of Monopolistic Competition with Horizontally Heterogeneous Consumers
- American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 2024
- 354-384
Our novel approach to modeling monopolistic competition with heterogeneous firms and consumers involves spatial product differentiation, in either a geographical space or a space of characteristics. In addition to price, each firm chooses location in space. We formulate conditions for positive sorting—more-productive firms serve larger market segments and face tougher competition—and for existence and uniqueness of equilibrium. To quantify the role of sorting, we calibrate the model using haircut market data and perform counterfactual analysis. Inequality in gains among consumers caused by positive market shocks can be substantial: gains for consumers at more-populated locations are three to four times higher.
1945-7669
Capital Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity Consumer Economics: Theory, Production Cost Capacity, Market Structure, Pricing, and Design: Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection, Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets, Personal, Professional, and Business Services Economics