Prices, Locations and Welfare When an Online Retailer Competes with Heterogeneous Brick‐and‐Mortar Retailers
构建空间模型分析在线零售商与异质性实体零售商竞争，发现实体店向人口密集区迁移，并探讨消费者福利、在线免税政策及最优零售商数量。
This study proposes a novel spatial model in which an online retailer competes with heterogeneous brick‐and‐mortar retailers. Consumers are assumed to be non‐uniformly distributed along an urban‐rural line, and online transactions provide savings in transportation costs at the expense of distaste costs. Among other results, we show that the surviving brick‐and‐mortar retailers eventually move toward densely populated (urban) areas after the entry of the online retailer. Consumer welfare, the policy of not taxing online business, and the socially optimal number of retailers are also analyzed.