Working papers are in draft form. This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder. Copies of working papers are available from the author. Competition among firms can have many positive outcomes, including decreased prices and improved quality. Yet competition can have a darker side when firms can...

We analyze costly quality disclosure with horizontally differentiated products under duopoly and monopoly, and characterize the effect of competition on disclosure and welfare. We show that expected disclosure is higher under monopoly than under duopoly, and the welfare comparison depends on the level of disclosure cost: when the disclosure cost is low, welfare is higher under monopoly than duo...

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 whereby competition leads to lower quality. This mechanism relies on two key assumptions, namely that the providers are motivated and riskaverse. Our proposed mechanism can help e...