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Complementarity, Search, and Price Dispersion

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Author Info
Michael Rauh (Indiana University)

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Abstract

We study an equilibrium sequential search model where buyers have potentially downward-sloping demand and with bilateral heterogeneity in buyers' search costs and firms' production costs. We show that downward- sloping demand and heterogeneity in production costs are necessary to ensure price dispersion when buyers have finite willingness to pay. We then show that firms' profits display increasing differences with respect to price and the distribution of prices when the distribution of search costs is 'uniform-like'. It follows that the set of equilibrium price distributions is nonempty and has a largest and smallest element, in the sense of first-order stochastic dominance. Since the high-price equilibrium is strongly focal, equilibrium is therefore effectively unique

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File URL: http://129.3.20.41/eps/game/papers/0508/0508008.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Game Theory and Information with number 0508008.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 22 pages
Date of creation: 21 Aug 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpga:0508008

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 22
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Web page: http://129.3.20.41

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Related research
Keywords: Complementarity; supermodularity; search; price dispersion.;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C7 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory
D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

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. 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)
  2. 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. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2001. "Information Gatekeepers on the Internet and the Competitiveness of Homogeneous Product Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 454-474, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Spulber, Daniel F, 1996. "Market Microstructure and Intermediation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 135-52, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Fershtman, Chaim & Fishman, Arthur, 1994. "The 'perverse' effects of wage and price controls in search markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 1099-1112, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. 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!]
  7. 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)
    Other versions:
  8. Diamond, Peter A., 1971. "A model of price adjustment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 156-168, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. 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)
  10. 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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  11. Burdett, Kenneth & Judd, Kenneth L, 1983. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 955-69, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. 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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  13. 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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  14. Robert, Jacques & Stahl, Dale O, II, 1993. "Informative Price Advertising in a Sequential Search Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(3), pages 657-86, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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