Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2014
Abstract
This paper looks at price and quality competition in software markets under two different forms of competition—one where two proprietary firms first choose quality and then engage in price competition, and second where a proprietary firm faces competition from an open source software (OSS) firm that allows its users to determine quality level and provides the software at zero price. We find that OSS competition never improves quality for consumers who value quality highly. However, it may provide greater quality to users with a low valuation for quality. In addition, we find that although OSS has a zero market price, the public good nature of OSS competition can lessen price competition, making the proprietary firm better-off with increased profit but leaving consumers worse-off with lower surplus.
DOI
10.1007/s11293-014-9426-2
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Atal, Vidya and Shankar, Kameshwari, "Open Source Software: Competition With a Public Good" (2014). Department of Economics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 51.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/economics-facpubs/51
Published Citation
Atal, V., & Shankar, K. (2014). Open source software: competition with a public good. Atlantic Economic Journal, 42(3), 333-345.