TY - JOUR
T1 - Peer-to-peer product sharing
T2 - Implications for ownership, usage, and social welfare in the sharing economy
AU - Benjaafar, Saif
AU - Kong, Guangwen
AU - Li, Xiang
AU - Courcoubetis, Costas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the American Society of Nephrology.
PY - 2019/2
Y1 - 2019/2
N2 - We describe an equilibrium model of peer-to-peer product sharing, or collaborative consumption, where individuals with varying usage levels make decisions about whether or not to own a homogeneous product. Owners are able to generate income from renting their products to nonowners while nonowners are able to access these products through renting on an as-needed basis. We characterize equilibrium outcomes, including ownership and usage levels, consumer surplus, and social welfare.We compare each outcome in systems with and without collaborative consumption and examine the impact of various problem parameters. Our findings indicate that collaborative consumption can result in either lower or higher ownership and usage levels, with higher ownership and usage levels more likely when the cost of ownership is high. Our findings also indicate that consumers always benefit from collaborative consumption, with individuals who, in the absence of collaborative consumption, are indifferent between owning and not owning benefitting the most. We study both profit-maximizing and social-welfare- maximizing platforms and compare equilibrium outcomes under both in terms of ownership, usage, and social welfare. We find that the difference in social welfare between the profit-maximizing and social-welfare-maximizing platforms is relatively modest.
AB - We describe an equilibrium model of peer-to-peer product sharing, or collaborative consumption, where individuals with varying usage levels make decisions about whether or not to own a homogeneous product. Owners are able to generate income from renting their products to nonowners while nonowners are able to access these products through renting on an as-needed basis. We characterize equilibrium outcomes, including ownership and usage levels, consumer surplus, and social welfare.We compare each outcome in systems with and without collaborative consumption and examine the impact of various problem parameters. Our findings indicate that collaborative consumption can result in either lower or higher ownership and usage levels, with higher ownership and usage levels more likely when the cost of ownership is high. Our findings also indicate that consumers always benefit from collaborative consumption, with individuals who, in the absence of collaborative consumption, are indifferent between owning and not owning benefitting the most. We study both profit-maximizing and social-welfare- maximizing platforms and compare equilibrium outcomes under both in terms of ownership, usage, and social welfare. We find that the difference in social welfare between the profit-maximizing and social-welfare-maximizing platforms is relatively modest.
KW - Collaborative consumption
KW - On-demand platforms
KW - Peer-to-peer markets
KW - Sharing economy
KW - Social welfare
KW - Sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063403889&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85063403889&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2970
DO - 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2970
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063403889
SN - 0025-1909
VL - 65
SP - 477
EP - 493
JO - Management Science
JF - Management Science
IS - 2
ER -