Innovation, Income Distribution, and Product Variety
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Philipps-Universität Marburg
Abstract
On the basis of a modification of K. Lancaster's characteristics approach and a special class of non-homothetic utility functions individual demand functions are derived. Individual demand is determined in a complex way by the income as well as the product qualities and the unit costs of the offered products. It becomes clear that product innovations (changes in product quality), process innovations (changes of unit costs) and changes in personal income distribution (e. g. due to income taxation and redistribution) all influence product variety in a very different way.
Keywords
innovation, Lancaster's characteristics approach, product variety, income distribution