Trade and Variety in a Model of Endogenous Product Differentiation

This paper sets up a model of endogenous product differentiation to analyze the variety effects of international trade. In our model multi-product firms decide not only about the number of varieties they supply but also about the degree of horizontal differentiation between these varieties. Firms ca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:MAGKS - Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics (Band 02-2009)
Main Authors: Lorz, Oliver, Wrede, Matthias
Format: Work
Language:English
Published: Philipps-Universität Marburg 2009
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Online Access:PDF Full Text
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Summary:This paper sets up a model of endogenous product differentiation to analyze the variety effects of international trade. In our model multi-product firms decide not only about the number of varieties they supply but also about the degree of horizontal differentiation between these varieties. Firms can raise the degree of differentiation by investing variety-specific fixed costs. In this setting, we analyze how trade integration, i.e. an increase in market size, influences the number of firms in the market, the number of product varieties supplied by each firm, and the degree of differentiation.
ISSN:1867-3678
DOI:10.17192/es2023.0216