Competencia por cantidades en los mercados de arte de México

Abstract

By using a Cournot competition model this paper aims at determining prices, quantities and market power of the largest intermediaries in Mexico's masterpieces paintings market. The main hypothesis is that those variables critically depend on the intermediaries' strategies of product differentiation, costs and conjectural variations. Results from simulation show that the model performs very well when explaining the behavior of intermediaries, especially when a parameter of product differentiation is introduced. In particular the model identifies two market niches; the one which is controlled by auction houses (the market for unique or highly differentiated pieces) and the other one which is monopolized by art galleries and art dealers (the market for common or lowly differentiated pieces). This distinction grounds the whole body of this research.