MIDDLEMEN IN SEARCH EQUILIBRIUM*
在均衡搜索模型中引入消费品的可分性和生产异质性，解释了中间商的出现。基准模型中中间商降低福利且随市场摩擦减少而增多；扩展模型考虑生产时间和市场匹配技术的规模报酬递增后，中间商能通过加速匹配过程造福社会。
This article shows how allowing for goods to be divisible at the point of consumption and incorporating productive heterogeneity lead to the emergence of middlemen in an equilibrium search environment. In the baseline model, middlemen are welfare reducing and their number increases as market frictions are reduced. When the model is extended to allow for time taken in production and increasing returns to scale in the market meeting technology, middlemen can be beneficial to society by speeding up the meeting process.