Quality undersupply and oversupply

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blouin, MR
• 署名单位: University of Quebec; University of Quebec Montreal
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/S0022-0531(02)00019-4
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 130-139
• 关键词: Adverse selection; Income effect; Substitution effect

摘要

I analyze a market in which a price-taking buyer buys a variable-quality good from a population of sellers, contrasting the case where quality is a seller's private information to that where it is public information. Average quality traded under private information can be either higher (quality oversupply) or lower (quality undersupply) than under public information, depending on sellers' preferences. We are likely to see quality undersupply if (i) sellers' preferences exhibit substitutability between the variable-quality good and the numeraire good, and/or (ii) sellers view the numeraire good as a luxury good relative to the variable-quality good. Reverse arguments hold for quality oversupply. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.