Abstract:Due to commercial tradition and the short history of antitrust law,the phenomenon that manufactures control the retailing price is very common in Chinese retail market. Increasing buyer power makes it possible for retailers to contend the pricing right with manufactures,which leads to a unique form of buyer power in China. Based on pricing right contending between retailers and manufactures,this paper studies the mechanism and economic effect of buyer power. First,this paper analyzes the motivation for retailers to contend the pricing right when the demand is certain,and finds that by contending the pricing right with manufactures the retailer can obtain “first-mover advantage of vertical pricing”. Thus,the wholesale price will decrease and the marginal profit of retailers will increase. Further,the paper extends the model by introducing uncertain market demand. It is found that the obtaining of the pricing right will transfer market risks from the retailer to the manufacture if the retailer is risk averse,giving the retailer a “profit effect of risk transfer”. Further,obtaining the pricing right can also give the retailer a“profit effect of flexibly pricing”by helping the retailer to make a more flexible price decision and to gain more profits if the retailer can predict market demand. The welfare study finds that the economic effect of buyer power in the form of pricing right contending depends on the market demand characteristics and risk attitudes of retailers. The increasing of buyer power does not always benefit consumers. Under specific conditions,the final price and consumer welfare would decrease with buyer power.Based on above conclusion,this paper also discusses the regulation of buyer power.