Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/307319 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
CHOPE Working Paper No. 2024-11
Publisher: 
Duke University, Center for the History of Political Economy (CHOPE), Durham, NC
Abstract: 
We trace the origins of the definition of the "quality variable" used in the theory of product differentiation, which states that quality is unanimously appreciated by consumers, entails a higher unit cost for firms, is unidimensional and continuous. We also document the transition from a diagrammatic treatment of the issue of product quality to an algebraic one in this theory. To do so, we examine two articles published a year apart in the American Economic Review: an article written by Lawrence Abbott (1953) and an article written by Robert Dorfman and Peter Otto Steiner (1954).
Subjects: 
Quality Variable
Product Differentiation
Lawrence Abbott
Robert Dorfman
Peter Otto Steiner
JEL: 
B21
D40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.