Direct sales and bargaining
研究了制造商直销对消费者福利的双重影响：一方面增加竞争和产品种类，另一方面增强制造商议价能力导致价格上涨，利用户外广告行业数据量化了这种效应。
Abstract Cutting out the intermediary and selling directly to consumers is an increasingly common strategy by manufacturers. We develop a structural model of vertical relations where manufacturers bargain with retailers and sell their products directly to consumers. Direct sales generate potential consumer gains due to additional competition and product variety but also increase manufacturers' bargaining leverage, thereby increasing upstream and downstream prices and potentially reducing consumer welfare. We estimate the model using data from the outdoor advertising industry to quantify the bargaining‐leverage and welfare effects of direct sales. We discuss the relevance of the bargaining‐leverage effect for vertical merger evaluation.