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Competitive Screening under Heterogeneous Information

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  • Gomes, Renato
  • Maestri, Lucas
  • Garrett, Daniel

Abstract

We study competition in price-quality menus when consumers privately know their valuation for quality (type), and are heterogeneously informed about the offers available in the market. While firms are ex-ante identical, the menus offered in equilibrium are ordered so that more generous menus leave more surplus uniformly over types. More generous menus provide quality more efficiently, serve a larger range of consumers, and generate a greater fraction of profits from sales of low-quality goods. By varying the mass of competing firms, or the level of informational frictions, we span the entire spectrum of competitive intensity, from perfect competition to monopoly.

Suggested Citation

  • Gomes, Renato & Maestri, Lucas & Garrett, Daniel, 2014. "Competitive Screening under Heterogeneous Information," CEPR Discussion Papers 10036, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10036
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Atabek Atayev, 2021. "Nonlinear Prices, Homogeneous Goods, Search," Papers 2109.15198, arXiv.org.
    2. Guido Menzio & Nicholas Trachter, 2018. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion Across and Within Stores," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 28, pages 205-220, April.
    3. Garrett, Daniel & Gomes, Renato & Maestri, Lucas, 2021. "Oligopoly under incomplete information: On the welfare effects of price discrimination," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Gomes, Renato & Lozachmeur, Jean-Marie & Maestri, Lucas, 2022. "Nonlinear Pricing in Oligopoly: How Brand Preferences Shape Market Outcomes," TSE Working Papers 22-1326, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    5. Natalia Fabra & Juan-Pablo Montero, 2022. "Product Lines and Price Discrimination in Markets with Information Frictions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(2), pages 981-1001, February.
    6. Lu, Jingfeng & Wang, Zijia, 2021. "Optimal selling mechanisms with buyer price search," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    7. Bannier, Christina E. & Feess, Eberhard & Packham, Natalie, 2014. "Incentive schemes, private information and the double-edged role of competition for agents," CFS Working Paper Series 475, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    8. Christina E. Bannier & Eberhard Feess & Natalie Packham & Markus Walzl, 2021. "Differentiation and Risk Aversion in Imperfectly Competitive Labor Markets," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 177(1), pages 1-27.
    9. Groh, Carl-Christian, 2023. "Search, Data, and Market Power," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277701, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2016. "Bonus Culture: Competitive Pay, Screening, and Multitasking," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(2), pages 305-370.
    11. Renato Gomes & Jean-Marie Lozachmeur & Lucas Maestri, 2022. "Nonlinear Pricing in Oligopoly: How Brand Preferences Shape Market Outcomes," Working Papers hal-03629496, HAL.
    12. Atayev, Atabek, 2021. "Nonlinear prices, homogeneous goods, search," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-092, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Daniel F. Garrett & Renato Gomes & Lucas Maestri, 2021. "Oligopoly under incomplete information: on the welfare effects of price discrimination," Post-Print hal-03515749, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adverse selection; Competition; Heterogeneous information; Price discrimination; Screening;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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