What is a Barrier to Entry?

26 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2004 Last revised: 21 Oct 2010

See all articles by R. Preston McAfee

R. Preston McAfee

California Institute of Technology - Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences; Yahoo! - Yahoo! Research Labs

Hugo M. Mialon

Emory University - Department of Economics

Michael A. Williams

Competition Economics LLC

Date Written: December 2003

Abstract

We expose the conflicts between eight definitions of a barrier to entry that have been proposed in the economics literature. To resolve the conflicts, we introduce four new concepts, namely economic, antitrust, standalone, and ancillary barriers to entry. We then employ these concepts to classify a set of well-known structural characteristics of markets and competitive tactics by incumbents.

Suggested Citation

McAfee, Randolph Preston and McAfee, Randolph Preston and Mialon, Hugo M. and Williams, Michael A., What is a Barrier to Entry? (December 2003). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=594601 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.594601

Randolph Preston McAfee (Contact Author)

California Institute of Technology - Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences ( email )

1200 East California Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91125
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Yahoo! - Yahoo! Research Labs ( email )

Sunnyvale, CA 94089
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Hugo M. Mialon

Emory University - Department of Economics ( email )

1602 Fishburne Drive
Atlanta, GA 30322
United States

Michael A. Williams

Competition Economics LLC ( email )

2000 Powell Street
Suite 510
Emeryville, CA 94608
United States