Obradovits Martin, Plaickner Philipp
Department of Economics, University of Innsbruck, Universitätsstraße 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Innsbruck, Austria.
Rev Ind Organ. 2023;63(3):317-348. doi: 10.1007/s11151-023-09916-y. Epub 2023 Aug 30.
Especially in many online markets, consumers can readily observe prices, but may need to inspect products further to assess their suitability. We study the effects of product differentiation and search costs on competition and market outcomes in a tractable model of price-directed consumer search. We find that: (i) firms' equilibrium pricing always induces efficient search behavior; (ii) for relatively large product differentiation, welfare distortions still occur because some consumers (may) forgo consumption; and (iii) lower search costs lead to stochastically higher prices, which increases firms' expected profits and decreases their frequency of sales. Consumer surplus often falls when search costs decrease.
特别是在许多在线市场中，消费者能够轻易观察到价格，但可能需要进一步检查产品以评估其适用性。我们在一个易于处理的价格导向型消费者搜索模型中研究产品差异化和搜索成本对竞争及市场结果的影响。我们发现：（i）企业的均衡定价总是会引发有效的搜索行为；（ii）对于相对较大的产品差异化，福利扭曲仍然会出现，因为一些消费者（可能）会放弃消费；（iii）较低的搜索成本会导致价格随机升高，这增加了企业的预期利润并降低了它们的销售频率。当搜索成本下降时，消费者剩余往往会减少。
