KTI szeminárium: T4.23-as előadóban: 2023.05.11., 10.30
Szerzők: Amanda De Pirro (Lancaster University), Renaud Foucart
Cím: Of Shrimp and Men: Innovation, Competition and Product Diversity
Absztrakt:
We build a model showing how a cost-reducing innovation can hurt the profit of the innovator by decreasing product diversity and strengthening competition. We illustrate this result using data from the shrimp industry. In the late 1990s, a US governmental program designed a new breed reducing the production cost of a variety of shrimp. This innovation gave a temporary boost to the profit of American producers. Over time, other countries abandoned their native production to adopt the new breed. In this catch-up phase, US producers not only lost their cost advantage, but also the market power derived from product differentiation.