The effect of link costs on simple buyer-seller networks

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dogan, Gonul; van Assen, Marcel; Potters, Jan
• 署名单位: University of Amsterdam; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Tilburg University; Tilburg University
• 刊物名称: GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0899-8256
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2012.10.006
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 229-246
• 关键词: Experiments; bargaining; networks; COMPETITION; sunk costs; inequality aversion

摘要

We examine experimentally how link costs affect the formation of links between a single seller and two potential buyers as well as the ensuing bargaining. Theory predicts that link costs lead to less competitive networks, with one link rather than two links, and that link costs do not affect the bargaining outcomes conditional on the network. We find support for the first but not the second prediction. 2-link networks form less frequently when there are link costs. Given that a 2-link network forms, however, a seller on average offers a smaller share of the pie to the buyers in the presence than in the absence of link costs. This impact of link costs can be explained by a disutility for (advantageous) inequality on the part of the seller. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.