
Abstract
Does the internet increase competition? To address this question, I exploit two institutional details unique to Germany: (1) Some municipalities received glass fibre cables that cannot be upgraded to DSL; I use these municipalities as a treatment group with reduced online competition. (2) German law mandates resale price maintenance for books; I compare three retailing sectors, electronics (price competition), books (no price competition), and food (no online sales), to identify the effect of price competition: The effect of price competition is highly significant. Full broadband access reduces offline electronics retailers’ producer rents by 1.5 percent per year from 1999 to 2007.
Item Type: | Paper |
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Keywords: | Internet, Market Structure, Retail Competition, Differences in Differences |
Faculties: | Special Research Fields > Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems Special Research Fields > Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems > A4 - Unvollständige Verträge, Marktinteraktion und soziale Vergleichsprozesse |
Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics |
JEL Classification: | D43, L81, L13 |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-epub-13209-4 |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 13209 |
Date Deposited: | 10. Jul 2012, 13:06 |
Last Modified: | 04. Nov 2020, 12:53 |