Costly Buyer Search in a Differentiated Products Model: An Experimental Study.
This study examines whether the content of buyer information and the timing of its dissemination affects seller market power. We construct laboratory markets with differentiated goods and costly buyer search in which sellers simultaneously post prices. The experiment varies the information on price...
| Publicado en: | Southern Economic Journal Vol. 77; no. 2; pp. 282 - 313 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Oct2010
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=54593432&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 54593432 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00384038 SEJ jtl: Southern Economic Journal issn: 00384038 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Oct2010 vid: 77 iid: 2 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 54593432 10.4284/sej.2010.77.2.282 ppf: 282 ppct: 31 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 15.8MB tig: atl: Costly Buyer Search in a Differentiated Products Model: An Experimental Study. aug: au: Mago, Shakun Datta affil: University of Richmond, Richmond, VA su: Economic equilibrium Intuition Economic research Product differentiation Market power Purchasing agents sug: subj: Economic equilibrium Intuition Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities All Other Personal Services Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers Economic research Product differentiation Market power Purchasing agents ab: This study examines whether the content of buyer information and the timing of its dissemination affects seller market power. We construct laboratory markets with differentiated goods and costly buyer search in which sellers simultaneously post prices. The experiment varies the information on price or product characteristics that buyers learn under different timing assumptions (pre- and postsearch), generating four information treatments. Theory predicts that price information lowers the equilibrium price, but information about product characteristics increases the equilibrium price. That is, contrary to intuition, the presence of informed buyers may impart a negative externality on other uninformed buyers. Data support the model's negative externality result when sellers face a large number of robot buyers that are programmed to search optimally. Observed prices conform to the model's comparative statics and are broadly consistent with predicted levels. With human buyers, however, excessive search instigates increased price competition, and sellers post prices that are significantly lower than predicted. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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