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Strategic Complementarities and Search Market Equilibrium

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Author Info
Michael T. Rauh (Department of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University Kelley School of Business)

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Abstract

In this paper, we apply supermodular game theory to the equilibrium search literature with sequential search. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for strategic complementarities and prove existence of search market equilibrium. When firms are identical, the Diamond Paradox obtains and is robust within the class of search cost densities that are small near zero and support strategic complementarities. Price dispersion is therefore inherently incompatible with strategic complementarities. Finally, we show that a major criticism of the literature, that agents act as if they know the distribution of prices, can be justified in the sense of convergent best response dynamics.

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File URL: http://www.bus.indiana.edu/riharbau/RePEc/iuk/wpaper/bepp2006-01-rauh.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy in its series Working Papers with number 2006-01.

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Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:iuk:wpaper:2006-01

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Related research
Keywords: Diamond Paradox; price dispersion; search; strategic complementarities;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
L0 - Industrial Organization - - General
D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search, Learning, and Information

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Rothschild, Michael, 1974. "Searching for the Lowest Price When the Distribution of Prices Is Unknown," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(4), pages 689-711, July/Aug.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Rauh, Michael T., 2004. "Wage and price controls in the equilibrium sequential search model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1287-1300, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Ed Hopkins & Robert M. Seymour, 2002. "The Stability of Price Dispersion under Seller and Consumer Learning," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(4), pages 1157-1190, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Michael T Rauh, 1997. "A Model of Temporary Search Market Equilibrium," Economics Working Paper Archive 392, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
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  5. Vives, Xavier, 1990. "Nash equilibrium with strategic complementarities," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 305-321. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Reinganum, Jennifer F, 1979. "A Simple Model of Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 851-58, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Han Hong & Matthew Shum, 2006. "Using Price Distributions to Estimate Search Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(2), pages 257-275, Summer.
  8. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Echenique, Federico & Edlin, Aaron, 2004. "Mixed equilibria are unstable in games of strategic complements," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 61-79, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2006. "Information, Search, and Price Dispersion," Working Papers 2006-11, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy. [Downloadable!]
  11. Rob, Rafael, 1985. "Equilibrium Price Distributions," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(3), pages 487-504, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Khan, M. Ali & Sun, Yeneng, 1999. "Non-cooperative games on hyperfinite Loeb spaces1," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 455-492, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Diamond, Peter A., 1971. "A model of price adjustment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 156-168, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Janssen, Maarten C.W. & Moraga-Gonzalez, Jose Luis & Wildenbeest, Matthijs R., 2005. "Truly costly sequential search and oligopolistic pricing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 451-466, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Michael T. Rauh, 2003. "Non-cooperative games with a continuum of players whose payoffs depend on summary statistics," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 901-906, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Michael T. Rauh, 2005. "Nonstandard Foundations of Equilibrium Search Models," Working Papers 2005-02, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Dana, James D, Jr, 1994. "Learning in an Equilibrium Search Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(3), pages 745-71, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Maris Goldmanis & Ali Hortacsu & Chad Syverson & Onsel Emre, 2008. "E-commerce and the Market Structure of Retail Industries," NBER Working Papers 14166, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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