The informational divide

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Nermuth, Manfred; Pasini, Giacomo; Pin, Paolo; Weidenholzer, Simon
• 署名单位: University of Vienna; Universita Ca Foscari Venezia; Tilburg University; University of Siena; University of Essex
• 刊物名称: GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0899-8256
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2012.10.016
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 21-30
• 关键词: price dispersion; Welfare effects of search; Price competition on networks; Informational divide

摘要

We propose a model of price competition where consumers exogenously differ in the number of prices they compare. Our model can be interpreted either as a non-sequential search model or as a network model of price competition. We show that (i) if consumers who previously just sampled one firm start to compare more prices all types of consumers will expect to pay a lower price and (ii) if consumers who already sampled more than one price sample (even) more prices then there exists a threshold - the informational divide - such that all consumers comparing fewer prices than this threshold will expect to pay a higher price whereas all consumers comparing more prices will expect to pay a lower price than before. Thus increased search can create a negative externality and it is not necessarily beneficial for all consumers. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.