Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans

I study product diversity in the presence of search costs and groups of consumers. Groups with heterogeneous tastes create a leverage effect on competition: a large majority of firms may end up offering a product that corresponds to the taste of the minority. I illustrate this idea with smoking bans...

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Main Author: Foucart, Renaud
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2017
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49621/
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author Foucart, Renaud
author_facet Foucart, Renaud
author_sort Foucart, Renaud
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description I study product diversity in the presence of search costs and groups of consumers. Groups with heterogeneous tastes create a leverage effect on competition: a large majority of firms may end up offering a product that corresponds to the taste of the minority. I illustrate this idea with smoking bans in bars and restaurants. When the first nonsmoking restaurants opened, there were few of them with little competition and high market power on nonsmokers. By extracting a large surplus from nonsmokers, nonsmoking restaurants became unattractive to other groups, while smoking restaurants were plenty and competitive, attracting both smokers and mixed groups.
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spelling nottingham-496212020-05-04T19:09:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49621/ Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans Foucart, Renaud I study product diversity in the presence of search costs and groups of consumers. Groups with heterogeneous tastes create a leverage effect on competition: a large majority of firms may end up offering a product that corresponds to the taste of the minority. I illustrate this idea with smoking bans in bars and restaurants. When the first nonsmoking restaurants opened, there were few of them with little competition and high market power on nonsmokers. By extracting a large surplus from nonsmokers, nonsmoking restaurants became unattractive to other groups, while smoking restaurants were plenty and competitive, attracting both smokers and mixed groups. Wiley 2017-09-30 Article PeerReviewed Foucart, Renaud (2017) Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans. Journal of Industrial Economics, 65 (3). pp. 559-584. ISSN 1467-6451 https://doi.org/10.1111/joie.12137 doi:10.1111/joie.12137 doi:10.1111/joie.12137
spellingShingle Foucart, Renaud
Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans
title Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans
title_full Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans
title_fullStr Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans
title_full_unstemmed Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans
title_short Group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans
title_sort group consumption and product diversity: the case of smoking bans
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49621/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49621/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49621/