Topic: Hotelling’s model and product differentiation VERY IMPORTANT : do not look at the answers until you have made a VERY serious effort to solve the problem. The same line is used to represent products. Our model thus features more than two oligopolistic competitors on the Hotelling line. yxop 1. Linear and quadratic forms of transportation cost have been widely used in spatial competition models [1,2]. With a little bit of detail added, this model, due to Hotelling, helps clarify the strategic nature of our electoral game. Second, because of product differentiation, price changes do not necessarily cause a dramatic movement of consumers from one firm to another. Put every voter on a line, from right to left; candidates move towards the center. Consider a spatial (Hotelling) model of product differentiation. Hotelling was the first to use a line segment to represent both the product that is sold and the preferences of the consumers who are buying the products. Despite shortcomings of the original model, Hotelling’s key insights endure. Horizontal Di erentiation: Hotelling model Each version of the good attached to an "address" in space of pos-sible con gurations. dimension (Hauser 1988, p. 79). D’Aspremont et al. Consumers (each with unit demand) are distributed uniformly along a straight line from 0 mile and end at 10 mile. A customer with taste x who pays p for the product from the firm located at y gets a utility of 40 2|x y] p, and there is always an option of not buying a product at all, which gives a utility of O. Horizontal Product Differentiation: Hotelling Model. (Harold Hotelling’s simple model of product differentiation dates to 1929. Hotelling (1929) claimed that competition in differentiated products results in minimal differenti- ation. Minimum differentiation is obtained when the transportation cost is linear in travel distance. Like Hotelling's model, each consumer has an ideal product in this dimension at constant prices. Proposing a similar utility function Each consumer’s utility depends on quantity ... many products in equilibrium ? The politics version is the median voter theory.) Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. There is a customer at each point of the segment on the interval [0,20]. If you turn to the answers to get clues or help, you are wasting a chance to test how well you are prepared for the exams. Firm 1 and Firm 2 (price setters firms) located at 0 and kilometre 10 respectively. Hotelling’s linear city not well tted to analyze this question because of boundary e ects. Lane's model represents brands in two-dimensional In the Hotelling model, customers' preferences are located by points on the same line segment. First, businesses tend to locate near rivals, despite price pressures. Introduction . I will not give you more practice problems later on. Choosing two firms, as most of the theoretical literature which models differentiation à la Hotelling, has substantial analytical advantages due to the implied complete symmetry of the firms. (1979) showed that, because a key calculation in Hotelling’s model is incorrect, the minimum differentiation equilibrium does not exist. The product equilibrium consists of min- imum differentiation at equal prices and maximal differentiation when both prices and product positions are considered. Their location on this interval is their taste x. Travel cost for consumers is 0.05 cents per kilometre going to and coming back. Keywords: Hotelling’s Model; Transportation Cost; Product Differentiation . 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