Search and Wholesale Price Discrimination
研究了批发市场中企业不公开标价、买家需承担搜索成本时，个性化定价如何影响市场效率。发现价格歧视使总剩余下降11.6%，卖方利润最高增加52.1%，部分原因是价格歧视削弱了搜索激励，加剧了搜索摩擦的效率损失。
Abstract Firms often choose not to post prices in wholesale markets, and buyers must incur costs to discover prices. Inspired by evidence of customized pricing (e.g., some customers pay up to 70% more than others) and search costs, I estimate a search model to study how personalized pricing impacts efficiency in a wholesale market. I find that price discrimination decreases total surplus by 11.6% and increases the sellers' profits by up to 52.1%. These effects are partially explained by price discrimination softening competition through a decrease in search incentives, illustrating how price discrimination may magnify the efficiency costs of search frictions.