A Research on Location Choice of Firms and Its Applications to Competition Policy

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24730224
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied economics
• Research Institution: Shinshu University (2013-2014); Tokyo University of Science (2012)
• Principal Investigator: TAKESHI EBINA 信州大学, 学術研究院社会科学系, 講師 (00579766)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 産業組織論 / 産業組織 / 立地 / 製品差別化 / 競争政策

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to investigate a location choice of firms and to offer a policy implication. First, I construct a unidirectional model where consumers can only buy from one direction. I show that the equilibrium outcome of the previous study does not constitute a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. In addition, applying my conjoint analysis to the book market of Japan, I investigate the relationship between product attributes and the optimal price. Second, I study the price and welfare effects of a merger of firms producing unidirectional complements. I show that a merger raises a price of a good, resulting in lower consumer surplus. This result is in sharp contrast to Cournot's classical implication that a merger in strict complements makes all consumers strictly better off. Furthermore, I apply a method, which utilizes the idea of pass-through in an analysis of third-degree price discrimination, to compare consumer surplus under vertical integration and separation.

Free Research Field

応用経済学