• Can competition reduce quality? 

      Brekke, Kurt Richard; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune (Discussion paper;9/2012, Working paper, 2012-03)
      We study the effect of competition on quality in markets such as health care, long-term care and education, when providers choose both prices and quality in a setting of spatial competition. We offer a novel mechanism ...
    • Competition and quality in regulated markets with sluggish demand 

      Brekke, Kurt Richard; Cellini, Roberto; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune (Discussion paper, Working paper, 2008-08)
      We investigate the effect of competition on quality in regulated markets (e.g., health care, higher education, public utilities), using a Hotelling framework, in the presence of sluggish demand. We take a differential game ...
    • Competition and quality in regulated markets: a differential-game approach 

      Brekke, Kurt Richard; Straume, Odd Rune; Siciliani, Luigi; Cellini, Roberto (Discussion paper, Working paper, 2008-02)
      We investigate the effect of competition on quality in regulated markets (e.g., health care, higher education, public utilities) taking a differential game approach, in which quality is a stock variable. Using a Hotelling ...
    • Horizontal mergers and product quality 

      Brekke, Kurt Richard; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune (Discussion paper;4/2014, Working paper, 2014-02)
      Using a spatial competition framework with three ex ante identical firms, we study the effects of a horizontal merger on quality, price and welfare. The merging firms always reduce quality. They also increase prices if ...
    • Hospital competition and quality with regulated prices 

      Brekke, Kurt Richard; Straume, Odd Rune; Siciliani, Luigi (Discussion paper, Working paper, 2008-02)
      We analyse the effect of competition on quality in hospital markets with regulated prices, considering both the effect of free patient choice (monopoly versus competition) and increased competition through lower transportation ...
    • Hospital competition with soft budgets 

      Brekke, Kurt Richard; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune (Discussion paper;6/2012, Working paper, 2012-03)
      We study the incentives for hospitals to provide quality and expend cost-reducing effort when their budgets are soft, i.e., the payer may cover deficits or confiscate surpluses. The basic set up is a Hotelling model with ...
    • Price and quality in spatial competition 

      Brekke, Kurt Richard; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune (Discussion paper, Working paper, 2009-07)
      We study the relationship between competition and quality within a spatial competition framework where firms compete in prices and quality. We generalise existing literature on spatial price-quality competition along ...