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Equilibrium Price Dispersion with Sequential Search

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  • J. Rupert Gatti

    (Trinity College)

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    Abstract

    Diamond (1971) showed that in a market where consumers search sequentially and have strictly positive search costs the unique price equilibrium is where all firms charge the monopoly price. This paper demonstrates that Diamond's result depends crucially on the assumption of single commodity search and does not persist when the model is generalised to allow multi-commodity search. A model is presented where identical consumers search optimally (sequentially) and with positive search costs for two commodities. Firms supply only one of the commodity types so consumers are required to sample at least two firms to satisfy their consumption requirements. Within industries firms are identical, producing a homogenous product at the same, constant, marginal cost. The equilibrium is shown to display price dispersion, in fact no two firms charge the same price with positive probability. Comparative statics are conducted and it is demonstrated that the price dispersion depends solely on the search behaviour of consumers, converging to the competitive price as search costs converge to zero. Changes in industry demand effect equilibrium prices only through the indirect impact the change in demand has on the consumers search behaviour.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by Econometric Society in its series Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers with number 1368.

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    Date of creation: 01 Aug 2000
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    Handle: RePEc:ecm:wc2000:1368

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    1. Peter Diamond, 1985. "Consumer Differences and Prices in a Search Model," Working papers 404, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    2. Pratt, John W & Wise, David A & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1979. "Price Differences in Almost Competitive Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 189-211, May.
    3. Stahl, Dale O., 1996. "Oligopolistic pricing with heterogeneous consumer search," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 243-268.
    4. Carlson, John A & McAfee, R Preston, 1983. "Discrete Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(3), pages 480-93, June.
    5. Diamond, Peter A., 1971. "A model of price adjustment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 156-168, June.
    6. Axel, Bo, 1977. " Search Market Equilibrium," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(1), pages 20-40.
    7. Benabou Roland, 1993. "Search Market Equilibrium, Bilateral Heterogeneity, and Repeat Purchases," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 140-158, June.
    8. Gatti, J. Rupert J., 1999. "Multi-Commodity Consumer Search," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 219-244, June.
    9. Dahlby, Bev & West, Douglas S, 1986. "Price Dispersion in an Automobile Insurance Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(2), pages 418-38, April.
    10. MacMinn, Richard D, 1980. "Search and Market Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 308-27, April.
    11. Albrecht, James W & Axell, Bo & Lang, Harald, 1986. "General Equilibrium Wage and Price Distributions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 687-706, November.
    12. Burdett, Kenneth & Judd, Kenneth L, 1983. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 955-69, July.
    13. McAfee R. Preston, 1995. "Multiproduct Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 83-105, October.
    14. Stahl, Dale O, II, 1989. "Oligopolistic Pricing with Sequential Consumer Search," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 700-712, September.
    15. Burdett, Kenneth & Malueg, David A., 1981. "The theory of search for several goods," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 362-376, June.
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    Cited by:
    1. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2004. "Price Dispersion in the Lab and on the Internet: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers 2004-02, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    2. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2006. "Persistent Price Dispersion in Online Markets," Working Papers 2006-12, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    3. Sun, Ching-jen, 2005. "Dynamic Price Dispersion in a Bertrand-Edgeworth Model," MPRA Paper 9854, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2007.
    4. Saul Lach, 2002. "Existence and Persistence of Price Dispersion: an Empirical Analysis," NBER Working Papers 8737, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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