Middlemen*
构建了一个基于搜索理论的中间商均衡模型，分析零售商如何从生产者进货并销售给消费者，探讨中间商数量、库存规模和价格分布的内生决定，并从效率角度判断中间商数量与规模是否最优。
This article provides an equilibrium model of intermediation based on search theory. Intermediaries, like retailers, buy goods from producers and sell them to consumers. The number of intermediaries is endogenously determined by free entry. The size and composition of their inventories is also endogenous. Larger inventories make it more likely that a random customer will find something he likes, but are more costly to store. The distribution of prices is characterized. Conditions are given under which there are too many or too few intermediaries, and under which intermediaries are too big or too small, from an efficiency perspective.