The Quality-Income Effect and the Selection of Location

We analyze a location-choice model with two vertically differentiated firms and two regions with different consumer income. We find that the high-quality producer settles in the poor region and the low-quality one in the rich region when income disparities are sufficiently high and goods are differentiated enough. This apparently counter-intuitive result is not determined by technology or size issues; rather, it relies on the relationship between regional income disparities and product quality, which we call the “Quality-Income effect.”