Sensitivity analysis of markup equilibria in complementary markets

Abstract

We study the competitive structure of a market in which firms compete to provide various products within a bundle. Firms adopt price functions proportional to their per-unit costs by selecting markups. We consider two measures reflecting, respectively, the intensity of direct competition and the impact of complementarity on each producer's markup. We characterize the sensitivity of these terms to various changes in the market structure and relate this to changes in producer profits and the social efficiency of the market. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.