Countervailing Power and Consumer Prices
研究零售集中度提高如何影响消费者价格和福利，发现只有当零售商服务高度替代时，价格才会下降，且供应商可能通过拒绝供应来维持利润。
This paper considers the importance of countervailing power, manifested as the effects of increased retail concentration on consumer prices and welfare within a market setting where imperfectly competitive retailers negotiate intermediate prices with a monopoly supplier. Only when retailer services are regarded as very close substitutes do final prices fall following a reduction in the number of retailers. Even in these circumstances, the social benefits of countervailing power may not be realised as the supplier may seek to protect its profits by using a refusal to supply restraint to engage in exclusive trading.