Quality Overprovision in Cable Television Markets
研究了美国有线电视市场1997-2006年间企业内生质量选择导致的福利扭曲，发现价格和品质均高于社会最优水平，这种质量过度供给源于高端卫星电视的竞争压力，若取消竞争，垄断者会降低质量。
We measure the welfare distortions from endogenous quality choice in imperfectly competitive markets. For US cable television markets between 1997–2006, prices are 33 percent to 74 percent higher and qualities 23 percent to 55 percent higher than socially optimal. Such quality overprovision contradicts classic results in the literature and our analysis shows that it results from the presence of competition from high-end satellite TV providers: without the competitive pressure from satellite companies, cable TV monopolists would instead engage in quality degradation. For welfare, quality overprovision implies cable customers would prefer smaller, lower-quality cable bundles at a lower price, amounting to a twofold increase in consumer surplus for the average consumer.