More Resources

Imperfect competition and quality signalling.


by Daughety, Andrew F.^Reinganum, Jennifer F.
RAND Journal of Economics • Spring, 2008 •

BAGWELL, K. "Pricing to Signal Product Line Quality." Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Vol. 1 (1992), pp. 151-174.

--. AND RAMEY, G. "Oligopoly Limit Pricing." RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 22 (1991), pp. 155-172.

--. AND RIORDAN, M. "High and Declining Prices Signal Product Quality." American Economic Review, Vol. 81 (1991), pp. 224-239.

BESTER, H. "Quality Uncertainty Mitigates Product Differentiation." RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 29 (1998), pp. 828-844.

CHO, I. AND KREPS, D.M. "Signalling Games and Stable Equilibria." Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 102 (1987), pp. 179-221.

CRAMPES, C. AND HOLLANDER, A. "Duopoly and Quality Standards." European Economic Review, Vol. 39 (1995), pp. 71-82.

DAS VARMA, G. "Bidding for a Process Innovation under Alternative Modes of Competition." International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 21 (2003), pp. 15-37.

DAUGHETY, A.F. AND REINGANUM, J.F. "Product Safety: Liability, R&D and Signalling." American Economic Review, Vol. 85 (1995), pp. 1187-1206.

--AND--. "Secrecy and Safety." American Economic Review, Vol. 95 (2005), pp. 1074-1091.

--AND--. "Competition and Confidentiality: Signalling Quality in a Duopoly When There Is Universal Private

Information." Games and Economic Behavior, Vol. 58 (2007), pp. 94-120. FLUET, C. AND GARELLA, P.G. "Advertising and Prices as Signals of Quality in a Regime of Price Rivalry." International

Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 20 (2002), pp. 907-930. FUDENBERG, D. AND TIROLE, J. Game Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991. GAL-OR, E. "The Advantages of Imprecise Information." RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 266-275.

HARRINGTON, J.E., Jr. "Oligopolistic Entry Deterrence under Incomplete Information." RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 18 (1987), pp. 211-231.

HERTZENDORF, M.N. "I'm Not a High-Quality Firm--But I Play One on TV." RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 24 (1993), pp. 236-247.

--AND OVERGAARD, P.B. "Prices as Signals of Quality in Duopoly." Working Paper, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus, 2001a.

--AND--. "Price Competition and Advertising Signals: Signalling by Competing Senders." Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Vol. l0 (2001b), pp. 621-662.

KLEIN, B. AND LEFFLER, K.B. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 89 (1981), pp. 615-641.

LEVIN, D., PECK, J., AND YE, L. "Quality Disclosure and Competition." Journal of Industrial Economics, forthcoming.

LINNEMER, L. "Entry Deterrence, Product Quality: Price and Advertising as Signals." Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Vol. 7 (1998), pp. 615-645.

LUTZ, N.A. "Warranties as Signals under Consumer Moral Hazard." RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 20 (1989), pp. 239-255.

MAILATH, G.J. "An Abstract Two-Period Game with Simultaneous Signalling--Existence of Separating Equilibria." Journal of Economic Theory, Vol. 46 (1988), pp. 373-394.

--. "Simultaneous Signalling in an Oligopoly Model." Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 104 (1989), pp. 417-427.

MARTIN, S. "Oligopoly Limit Pricing: Strategic Substitutes, Strategic Complements." International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 13 (1995), pp. 41-65.

MAS-COLELL, A., WHINSTON, M.D., AND GREEN, J.R. Microeconomic Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

MATTHEWS, S.A. AND MIRMAN, L.J. "Equilibrium Limit Pricing: The Effects of Private Information and Stochastic Demand." Econometrica, Vol. 51 (1983), pp. 981-996.

MILGROM, P. AND ROBERTS, J. "Price and Advertising Signals of Product Quality." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 94 (1986), pp. 796-821.

ORZACH, R. AND TAUMAN, Y. "Signalling Reversal." International Economic Review, Vol. 37 (1996), pp. 453-464.

RONNEN, U. "Minimum Quality Standards, Fixed Costs, and Competition." RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 22 (1991), pp. 490-504.

(1) Proofs of Propositions 1, 3, and 4 are provided. Proofs of Propositions 2, 5, and 6 are straightforward but tedious, and are omitted (example calculations are provided for Proposition 6).

(2) Bagwell (1992) conducts a related analysis of a monopolist producing a product "line."

(3) Hertzendorf (1993) argues that, if advertising is stochastically observed, price and advertising expenditure will never be used in combination. Linnemer (1998) considers a firm which uses price and advertising to signal to two different audiences: it signals its product quality to consumers and its marginal cost to a potential entrant.

(4) See also Hertzendorf and Overgaard (2001a); Harrington (1987), Bagwell and Ramey (1991), and Orzach and Tauman (1996) consider limit pricing models in which two or more incumbent firms with common private information about production costs attempt to deter entry using price as a signal of cost.

(5) If the consumer's loss were verifiable, then a firm could offer a warranty specifying the consumer's extent of recovery in the event of this loss. Because the warranty contract is endogenous, warranties could serve as another route via which quality could be signalled (see Lutz, 1989, for such a model).

(6) Gal-Or (1988) also considers a two-period model in which firms learn about their costs, and those of their rivals, over time; her paper specifically omits consideration of the signalling problem. Mailath (1988) establishes conditions guaranteeing the existence of separating equilibria in abstract two-period games with simultaneous signalling.

(7) Martin (1995) considers two incumbent firms who signal privately known marginal costs to each other and a potential entrant; countervailing incentives can result in pooling. Das Varma (2003) models market competition preceded by an auction of a cost-reducing innovation. When firms compete in price strategies, they bid less aggressively.

(8) Given constant returns to scale, the same results apply for multiple identical consumers.

(9) One could allow [[theta].sub.i] to be between zero and one; then [[theta].sub.H] is the probability that a product i of high quality does not create a loss of [delta], and [[theta].sub.L] (< [[theta].sub.H]) is the probability that a product of low quality does not create a loss of [delta].

(10) For certain results we will consider limits where [lambda] goes to zero or one.

(11) Note that if [gamma] = 0, then each product is independent of each other product, and each firm has a monopoly in its product market.

(12) We generalize this cost structure to allow positive costs for the low-quality product later in the article in discussing one of our applications.

(13) In fact, we show that the separating equilibrium we discuss is the only symmetric separating equilibrium to survive refinement under the intuitive criterion. Moreover, this same refinement eliminates all (pure) pooling equilibria.

(14) Signalling causes this effect. Alternatively, if firms choose prices under uncertainty about rival quality but consumers can observe all firms' quality levels, in the resulting Bayesian-Nash equilibrium a high-quality firm will sell more output than a low-quality firm. We thank a referee for this observation.

(15) Some exceptions in the literature considering signalling by one firm do exist; see Matthews and Mirman (1983) and Daughety and Reinganum (1995, 2005); see also Daughety and Reinganum (2007) for a duopoly example with a simpler demand structure which yields results similar to Propositions 2 and 3 below.

(16) Note that [[alpha].sub.2] is a function of the parameters. This will be similarly true for other results below, which require a restriction that [alpha] be sufficiently large. We use [alpha] as the critical variable here because it can be increased without threatening to violate Assumptions 1 and 2.

(17) Of course, only parameter combinations that also satisfied Assumptions 1 and 2 were considered.

(18) In particular, for a monopoly ([gamma] = 0), [P.sub.L], [Q.sub.L], and [[PI].sub.L] are all declining in [delta].

(19) This can be done by simply raising [alpha], if necessary, because a can be raised without risk of violating Assumptions 1 and 2.

(20) The most recent bill at the federal level was HR 2657, "Comprehensive Medical Malpractice Reform Act of 2005" (introduced May 26, 2005). The first section of the bill, Section 101, provided for limits on recovery of noneconomic damages in medical malpractice suits.

(21) We assume strict liability, so a firm compensates a victim for "compensable" harms without reference to due-care standards. Although medical malpractice is technically under a regime of negligence, in what follows, a low-quality producer is negligent by assumption, whereas a high-quality producer is never negligent.

(22) Alternatively, professional licensing converts some, but not all, L-type firms into H-type firms, thereby raising the proportion [lambda] of high-quality firms in the market. From Proposition 2, this results in higher prices and profits (in high-value markets) for both types of firm. We thank a referee for suggesting this interpretation.

(23) Ronnen (1991) provides a full-information model with endogenous quality wherein minimum quality standards lower both firms' prices. Crampes and Hollander (1995) find that, under convex costs, a minimum quality standard benefits the low-quality firm and hurts the high-quality firm, which is consistent with the implications of our full-information model.

Andrew F. Daughety *

Jennifer F. Reinganum *


5  6  7  8  9  10  11  
COPYRIGHT 2008 Rand, Journal of Economics Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.


Browse by Journal Name:
Today on Entrepreneur
Related Video

e-Business & Technology
Franchise News
Business Book Sampler
Starting a Business
Sales & Marketing
Growing a Business
E-mail*:
Zip Code*: