IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpolec/doi10.1086-712445.html

An Experimental Investigation of Price Dispersion and Cycles

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy N. Cason
  • Daniel Friedman
  • Ed Hopkins

Abstract

We report a continuous-time experiment studying the Burdett-Judd model, whose unique Nash equilibrium (NE) features dispersed prices. Adaptive dynamics predict that the NE is stable for one of our parameter sets and unstable for another. The empirical price distribution is close to the NE distribution for the stable parameter set, but for the unstable parameter set it skews toward higher prices in its NE support interval. We offer an empirical definition of price cycles in terms of changes over time in robust measures of central tendency and dispersion, by which the data exhibit persistent cycles in both treatments but larger cycles for the unstable parameters. Results are roughly similar for professional and student sellers and for limited-information treatments.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy N. Cason & Daniel Friedman & Ed Hopkins, 2021. "An Experimental Investigation of Price Dispersion and Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(3), pages 789-841.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/712445
    DOI: 10.1086/712445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/712445
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/712445
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/712445?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniel G. Stephenson & Alexander L. Brown, 2021. "Playing the field in all-pay auctions," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(2), pages 489-514, June.
    2. Schneider, Mark & Stephenson, Daniel Graydon, 2021. "Bargains, price signaling, and efficiency in markets with asymmetric information," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 160-181.
    3. Tom‐Reiel Heggedal & Leif Helland & Espen R. Moen, 2024. "Sequential Price Setting: Theory And Evidence From A Lab Experiment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(2), pages 693-727, May.
    4. Hang Wu & Qin Wu & Yue Liu & Mengmeng Shi, 2025. "Newsvendor Decisions under Stochastic and Strategic Uncertainties: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Papers 2512.00994, arXiv.org.
    5. Benndorf, Volker & Martínez-Martínez, Ismael & Normann, Hans-Theo, 2021. "Games with coupled populations: An experiment in continuous time," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    6. Wang Yijia & Wang Zhijian, 2023. "Pulse in collapse: a game dynamics experiment," Papers 2302.09336, arXiv.org.
    7. Nobuyuki Hanaki & Aidas Masiliunas, 2021. "Market Concentration and Incentives to Collude in Cournot Oligopoly Experiments," ISER Discussion Paper 1131, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka.
    8. Zhijian Wang & Shujie Zhou & Qinmei Yao & Yijia Wang, 2022. "Dynamic Structure in Four-strategy Game: Theory and Experiment," Papers 2203.14669, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/712445. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.