Search, Obfuscation, and Price Elasticities on the Internet
研究一群互联网零售商在价格搜索引擎主导环境下的竞争，发现易搜索使部分产品需求价格弹性极大，而零售商通过混淆策略降低其他产品的价格敏感度，并实证分析混淆对需求和加成的影响。
We examine the competition between a group of Internet retailers who operate in an environment where a price search engine plays a dominant role. We show that for some products in this environment, the easy price search makes demand tremendously price-sensitive. Retailers, though, engage in obfuscation-practices that frustrate consumer search or make it less damaging to firms-resulting in much less price sensitivity on some other products. We discuss several models of obfuscation and examine its effects on demand and markups empirically. Copyright 2009 The Econometric Society.