WHEN DO CONSUMERS SEARCH?*
利用汽油价格网站的流量数据，发现消费者在价格上涨时比下跌时搜索更多，这种不对称搜索挤压了零售利润，并导致价格下跌时价差更大，为“火箭与羽毛”现象提供了搜索角度的解释。
This paper provides empirical evidence relating search to price movements. We measure consumer search directly from traffic statistics for web sites that report gasoline prices. We show empirically that consumers search more as prices rise than they do when prices fall. Asymmetric search patterns have consequences for price behavior. Our findings indicate that retail margins are squeezed by increased search. In addition, we show that there is more price dispersion when prices are falling than when prices are either stable or rising. Our results provide a search-based explanation for the ‘rockets and feathers’ phenomenon of asymmetric price adjustment.