Product Quality and Consumer Search

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Moraga-Gonzalez, Jose L.; Sun, Yajie
• 署名单位: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; IMT - Institut Mines-Telecom; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Telecom Paris; Tinbergen Institute; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Navarra
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20200300
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 117-141
• 关键词: monopolistic competition; price; probability; COSTS; procurement; INNOVATION; MODEL

摘要

An increase in quality shifts up the distribution of match utilities offered by firms and makes consumers pickier. The number of prod-ucts that consumers inspect does not necessarily increase in qual-ity. Higher search costs may lead to less quality investment, and the equilibrium price may decrease. If the equilibrium is inefficient , it is because of the inadequacy of quality investment. The market level of quality investment is excessive (insufficient) and consumers are too (little) picky from the point of view of welfare maximization if and only if a rise in quality results in consumers inspecting a higher (lower) number of products. (JEL D11, D21, D83, G31, L15)