A Schumpeterian theory of multi-quality firms
(2018) Journal of Economic Theory — Vol. 175, n° C, p. 766-802 (2018)
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- Abstract
- This paper introduces multi-quality firms within a Schumpeterian framework. Featuring non-homothetic preferences and income disparities in an otherwise standard quality-ladder model, it shows that the resulting differences in the willingness to pay for quality among consumers generate both positive investments in R&D by industry leaders and positive market shares for more than one quality, hence allowing for the emergence of multi-product firms within a vertical innovation framework. This positive investment in R&D by incumbents is obtained with complete equal treatment in the R&D field between the incumbent patent holder and the challengers: in this framework, the incentive for a leader to invest in R&D stems from a ``surplus appropriation effect'' specific to vertically-differentiated markets, i.e. the perspective of more efficient price discrimination when expanding the product portfolio. Such a framework makes it possible to analyse the impact of income distribution, as well as that of several possible R&D policies, both on long-term growth and on the allocation of R&D activities between challengers and incumbents.
- Affiliations
CNRS Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Citations
Latzer, H. (2018). A Schumpeterian theory of multi-quality firms. Journal of Economic Theory, 175(C), 766-802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jet.2018.03.005 (Original work published 2018)