Do Smartphones Spur Competition? Evidence from the Korean Retail Gasoline Market.

• 영문명: Do Smartphones Spur Competition? Evidence from the Korean Retail Gasoline Market.
• 발행기관: 한국재정학회(구 한국재정·공공경제학회)
• 저자명: 홍우형(Woo-Hyung Hong)
• 간행물 정보: 『한국재정학회 학술대회 논문집』2016년도 경제학 공동학술대회, 1~39쪽, 전체 39쪽
• 주제분류: 경제경영 > 경제학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2016.02.28

영문 초록

Smartphones, as information-providing devices, can improve market performance and reduce price dispersion. This paper treats the introduction of smartphones in the Korean gasoline market as a natural experiment to investigate the impact of smartphones on competition among gas stations. Smartphones provided consumers with direct access to price information through OPINET, a government-sponsored Internet website. Our results indicate that the adoption of smartphones is associated with dramatic decreases in price dispersion and average price-cost margins, thereby creating consumer gains. Additionally, we found a sudden decline in entries and a slow increase in exits after the introduction of smartphones.

목차

1 Introduction

2 Backgrounds: OPINET and smartphones

3 Theoretical model and predictions

4 Data and identification strategy

5 Empirical results: price-setting behavior

6 The consequence: entry and exit behavior

7 Concluding remarks

키워드

information smartphone search cost price dispersion IT innovation Korean gasoline market