Quality Diversity and Prices in Markets for Experience Goods
Quality Diversity and Prices in Markets for Experience Goods
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1530-9134.2011.00308.x
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发表时间：
2011-09
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
G. Orosel;Klaus G. Zauner
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
G. Orosel;Klaus G. Zauner
我们分析了垂直产品差异化的模型中，一个好的质量是不可观察的客户购买前，连续的质量水平是技术上可行的，最低质量是由一个有竞争力的边缘公司提供。购买后，商品的真实质量才能显现出来。为了激励企业实际提供承诺的质量，价格必须超过单位可变成本。我们发现，对于一个大类的客户偏好有“质量极化”，也就是说，只有最低和最高可行的质量是在市场上。对于没有质量极化的情况下，我们得到充分的条件，激励约束完全确定均衡价格，无论需求，所有中间质量水平。
We analyze vertical product differentiation in a model where a good’s quality is unobservable to customers before purchase, a continuum of quality levels is technologically feasible, and minimum quality is supplied by a competitive fringe of firms. After purchase the true quality of the good is revealed. To provide firms with incentives to actually deliver promised quality, prices must exceed unit variable costs. We show that for a large class of customer preferences there is “quality polarization,” that is, only minimum and maximum feasible quality are available in the market. For the case without quality polarization we derive sufficient conditions for the incentive constraints to completely determine equilibrium prices, regardless of demand, for all intermediate quality levels.