I know Joshua Gans only in the sense that I read his blog, have exchanged a handful of e-mails with him, and have heard him on a radio program or two. Despite that rather weak (non)relationship, he kindly sent me the following in response to my request for leads on bilateral oligopoly theory:
Start here:
- “A Bargaining Perspective on Strategic Outsourcing and Supply Competition,” (with Catherine de Fontenay), Strategic Management Journal, Vol.29, No.8, August 2008, pp.819-839.
- “Concentration-Based Merger Tests and Vertical Market Structure,” Journal of Law and Economics, Vol.50, No.4, November 2007, pp.661-680.
- “Vertical Integration in the Presence of Upstream Competition,” (with Catherine de Fontenay), RAND Journal of Economics, Vol.36, No.3, 2005, pp.544-572.
Also look up the work of McAfee and Hendricks.I recall that David Dranove also has a paper as does a Matt Grennan at Rotman (Toronto) on health insurance specifically.
Now I feel bad that I haven’t yet read Gans’ book, Parentonomics: An Economist Dad Looks at Parenting. I do think I’d enjoy it. It’s now on my reading list.
by Colleen Carey on January 18th, 2011 at 10:26
I love this problem! Unfortunately, having presumed to peep at your theory, it still exceeds mine. I can show much lousier dead-end models that allow differentiated providers (differentiated insurers too, if you’d like.) I was on Gans’ website yesterday and am hoping to wring something from his work with de Fontenay. There have been at least three recent job market candidates working on related issues in cable channel bundling, medical devices (Grennan, who Gans mentions), and video games. So it’s coming under scrutiny. I look forward to follow ups!