When does a Monopoly Improve the Quality in a Network Industry?
JOURNAL
YEAR
Sep 21, 2013
TYPE
Articles in journals
AUTHORS
Garcia, F.
VOL Nº
13
PAGES
33
ABSTRACT
This article identifies the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a monopolist, producing a network good, benefits from introducing a higher quality in the market. It is shown that, if the network externality is higher than the intrinsic quality differential, quality improvement is not optimal. Also, we obtain that, for low levels of the network effect, the monopolist prefers not to cover the market, whereas for higher levels, optimal prices are such that all consumers buy one of the two qualities. Finally, there is an introductory price strategy which is optimal for the good that benefits from network externalities.
JEL CLASS
KEYWORDS
Quality improvement,Delayed Network Externalities,Introductory pricing,Innovation