Public research seminar. A report by Professor Paolo Bertoletti

On June 10, 2013, CMSSE was held the public research seminar. Report on the theme "Monopolistic Competition: Alternative Approaches" by Professor Paolo Bertoletti (Pavia University).

П.Бертолетти

On June 10, 2013, 17:00.
Public research seminar.
Professor Paolo Bertoletti (Pavia University). "Monopolistic Competition: Alternative Approaches".

I will contrast the results emerging from the standard Dixit and Stiglitz (1977) approach, recently reconsidered by Zhelobodko et al (2012), to the ones that can be derived in the "dual" setting introduced by Bertoletti and Etro (2013), which assumes indirect additivity of preferences. In the latter case a market size increase never affects prices and firms' size, nor it produces any selection effect, but only increases proportionally the number of firms, creating pure gains from variety (as in the CES case). Instead, an increase in individual income increases prices (and more than proportionally the number of varieties), reduces firms' size and creates an antiselection effect if and only if the price elasticity of demand is increasing. I will also present results concerning the case of costly trade in the primal setting from Bertoletti and Epifani (2012).

The address of the seminar: Conference-hall (3rd floor), b. 47, pr. Rimskogo-Korsakova, Saint Petersburg.

Working language – English.