Competing Sales Channels with Captive Consumers
研究了企业同时通过直销和比价网站等竞争性渠道销售时，竞争渠道规模扩大如何影响市场结果，发现可能反而提高价格、损害消费者。
Abstract We study strategic interactions in markets in which firms sell to consumers both directly and via a competitive channel, such as a price comparison website or marketplace, where multiple sellers’ offers are visible at once. We ask how a competitive channel’s size influences market outcomes when some consumers have limited price information. A bigger competitive channel means that more consumers compare prices, increasing within-channel competition. However, we show that such seemingly pro-competitive developments can raise prices and harm consumers by weakening between-channel competition.