Market concentration and product variety under spatial competition : evidence from retail gasoline

Arbeitspapier

We show that for a spatially differentiated economy reduced product variety is the likely outcome of mergers except in cases where exit costs in relation to (outlet-specific) fixed costs are high. Our empirical analysis of the Austrian retail gasoline market confirms that increases in concentration reduce product variety. Ignoring this product variety effect is likely to lead to an underestimate of market power in structural merger analysis.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 1289

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms ; Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities: General ; Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
• Subject: spatial product differentiation ; retail gasoline ; mergers ; concentration ; Produktdifferenzierung ; Räumlicher Wettbewerb ; Fusion ; Wirtschaftskonzentration ; Tankstelle ; Theorie ; Österreich

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Goetz, Georg ; Gugler, Klaus
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2004

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/18927
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET