Searching for Service

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Janssen, Maarten C. W.; Ke, T. Tony
• 署名单位: University of Vienna; HSE University (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20180315
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 188-219
• 关键词: resale price maintenance

摘要

Since Telser (1960), there is a well-established argument that a competitive market will not provide service due to freeriding. We show that with search frictions, the market may well provide service if the cost of doing so is not too large. Any market equilibrium with service provision has two or more firms providing service, implying overprovision of service as the social optimum mandates at most one service provider Firms that provide service and those that do not can coexist, where consumers direct their search to service providers first to obtain service, and to nonservice providers later to enjoy lower prices.