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(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 *
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