Price and non-price competition with endogenous market structure

This paper examines the effect of the intensity of short-run price competition and other exogenous variables that affect gross profit margins-such as the degree of product differentiation and the consumers' responsiveness to quality-on market structure and on advertising and R&D expenditure. A key result is that more intense short-run competition can lead to lower concentration in industries with high advertising or R&D intensity, unlike exogenous-sunk-cost industries. Also, price competition has a negative effect on advertising or R&D expenditure. A case study is also presented, which is consistent with the theoretical results of the paper.