Consumer Information and Firm Pricing: Negative Externalities from Improved Information
分析消费者信息对企业定价的影响，发现不知情消费者比例越高，价格越低，因此不知情消费者对他人产生正外部性，导致社会在信息收集上过度投资。
We analyze the effect of consumer information on firm pricing in a model where consumers search for prices and matches with products. We consider two types of consumers. Uninformed consumers do not know in advance their match values with firms, whereas informed consumers do. Prices are lower the greater the proportion of uninformed consumers. Hence uninformed consumers exert a positive externality on the others, in contrast to standard results. This leads to socially excessive investment in gathering prior information when aggregate demand is price‐sensitive.