We examine an oligopoly model where some consumers engage in costly non-sequential search to discover prices. There are three distinct price-dispersed equilibria characterized by low, moderate and high search intensity. The effects of an increase in the number of firms on search behaviour, expected prices, price dispersion and welfare are sensitive (i) to the equilibrium consumers' search intensity, and (ii) to the status quo number of firms. For instance, when consumers search with low intensity, an increase in the number of firms reduces search, does not affect expected price, leads to greater price dispersion and reduces welfare. In contrast, when consumers search with high intensity, increased competition results in more search and lower prices when the number of competitors in the market is low to begin with, but in less search and higher prices when the number of competitors is large. Duopoly yields identical expected price and price dispersion but higher welfare than an infinite number of firms.
We analyze a dynamic version of the Akerlof±Wilson``lemons'' market in a competitive durable good setting. There is a ®xed set of sellers with private information about the quality of their wares. The price mechanism sorts sellers of different qualities into different time periodsÐprices and average quality of goods traded increase over time. Goods of all qualities are traded in ®nite time. Market failure arises because of the waiting involvedÐparticularly for sellers of better quality. The equilibrium path may exhibit intermediate breaks in trading.
* Manuscript
Consider a Bertrand model in which each rm may be inactive with a known probability, so the number of active rms is uncertain. This simple model has a mixed-strategy equilibrium in which industry pro ts are positive and decline with the number of rms, the same features which make the Cournot model attractive. Unlike in a Cournot model with similar incomplete information, Bertrand pro ts always increase in the probability other rms are inactive. Pro ts decline more sharply than in the Cournot model, and the pattern is similar to that found by Bresnahan & Reiss 1991.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.