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The Diamond Paradox: A Dynamic Resolution

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Author Info
Kyle Bagwell
Garey Ramey

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Abstract

We consider the role of repeat business in resolving the paradox of Diamond (1971). In each period, consumers engage in sequential price search at a positive search cost. Consumers enforce pricing discipline via a simple loyalty-boycott search rule that directs future-period seraches away from firms that raise prices in the current period. In consumers' best equlibria, the equilibrium price decreases continuously with the level of search costs, and the competitive outcome obtains as search costs approach zero. We show further that Rotemberg and Saloner's (1986) finding of countercyclical markups does not arise in the presence of positive search costs.

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Paper provided by Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science in its series Discussion Papers with number 1013.

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Date of creation: Nov 1992
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Handle: RePEc:nwu:cmsems:1013

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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. Kyle Bagwell & Michael Peters, 1988. "Dynamic Monopoly Power When Search is Costly," Discussion Papers 772, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science. [Downloadable!]
  2. Ian Domowitz & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1986. "Business Cycles and the Relationship Between Concentration and Price-Cost Margins," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Burdett, Kenneth & Judd, Kenneth L, 1983. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 955-69, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Abreu, Dilip, 1986. "Extremal equilibria of oligopolistic supergames," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 191-225, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Bils, Mark, 1989. "Pricing in a Customer Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 104(4), pages 699-718, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. John Haltiwanger & Joseph E. Harrington Jr., 1991. "The Impact of Cyclical Demand Movements on Collusive Behavior," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(1), pages 89-106, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Franklin Allen, 1984. "Reputation and Product Quality," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(3), pages 311-327, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. 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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  9. Fershtman, C. & Fishman, A., 1989. "Price Cycles And Booms Dynamic Search Equilibrium," Papers 8922, Tilburg - Center for Economic Research.
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  10. Varian, Hal R, 1980. "A Model of Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 651-59, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Rob, Rafael, 1985. "Equilibrium Price Distributions," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(3), pages 487-504, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Benabou, Roland, 1988. "Search, Price Setting and Inflation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(3), pages 353-76, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Bernheim, B. Douglas & Peleg, Bezalel & Whinston, Michael D., 1987. "Coalition-Proof Nash Equilibria I. Concepts," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-12, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Robert W. Staiger & Frank A. Wolak, 1992. "Collusive Pricing with Capacity Constraints in the Presence of Demand Uncertainty," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 23(2), pages 203-220, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Diamond, Peter A., 1971. "A model of price adjustment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 156-168, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Stahl, Dale O, II, 1989. "Oligopolistic Pricing with Sequential Consumer Search," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 700-712, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Rotemberg, Julio J & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "A Supergame-Theoretic Model of Price Wars during Booms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 390-407, June. [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. Mariano Tommasi, 1993. "High Inflation: Resource Misallocations and Growth Effects," UCLA Economics Working Papers 704, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  2. Kyle Bagwell, 1993. "Dynamic Retail Price and Investment Competition," Discussion Papers 1115, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Mariano Tommasi, 1993. "Don't be Ignorant: Price Dispersion is Not a Measure of Ignorance in the Market," UCLA Economics Working Papers 699, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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