Prominence and consumer search
研究搜索市场中“突出性”的影响：突出企业被所有消费者优先搜索，若企业质量无差异，突出企业定价更低；若质量有差异，高质量企业最愿成为突出企业，且突出性可提升行业利润、消费者剩余和福利。
This article examines the implications of “prominence” in search markets. We model prominence by supposing that the prominent firm will be sampled first by all consumers. If there are no systematic quality differences among firms, we find that the prominent firm will charge a lower price than its less prominent rivals. Making a firm prominent will typically lead to higher industry profit but lower consumer surplus and welfare. The model is extended by introducing heterogeneous product qualities, in which case the firm with the highest‐quality product has the greatest incentive to become prominent, and making it prominent will boost industry profit, consumer surplus, and welfare.