Consumer Search and Price Competition
研究消费者基于部分产品信息和广告价格进行序贯搜索的寡头模型，利用最优搜索解将定价博弈转化为离散选择问题，分析偏好多样性和搜索摩擦对市场价格的影响，发现降低搜索成本会提高市场价格。
We consider an oligopoly model in which consumers engage in sequential search based on partial product information and advertised prices. By applying Weitzman's (1979) optimal sequential search solution, we derive a simple static condition that fully summarizes consumers' shopping outcomes and translates the pricing game among the sellers into a familiar discrete‐choice problem. Exploiting the discrete‐choice reformulation, we provide sufficient conditions that guarantee the existence and uniqueness of market equilibrium and analyze the effects of preference diversity and search frictions on market prices. Among other things, we show that a reduction in search costs raises market prices.