Does Amazon Exercise Its Market Power? Evidence from Toys“R”Us
利用玩具反斗城突然退出美国市场的自然实验，研究发现亚马逊在美国的玩具价格相对上涨了近5%，表明即使有良好声誉，亚马逊也可能在竞争对手退出后以传统方式行使市场力量。
Since its founding, Amazon has established a reputation for being consumer friendly by consistently offering lower prices than its market position would seem to allow. However, recent antitrust concerns about dominant online platforms have revived questions about whether Amazon’s growing market share threatens consumer welfare. Given its reputation, regulators have proposed a new focus on conduct unrelated to prices. We ask whether such a move is premature. Using the sudden and unanticipated US exit of Toys“R”Us as a natural experiment, we find that Amazon’s toy prices on its US site increased by almost 5 percent in the wake of the exit relative to similar products and to toys on its Canadian site. Thus, despite Amazon’s long-standing reputation, it may exploit increases in market power in traditional ways as competing retailers cease operating.