CeDEx
Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics

CeDEx Seminar - Aleksei Parakhonyak (University of Oxford)

Location
A40 Sir Clive Granger Building
Date(s)
Wednesday 12th October 2016 (14:00-15:00)
Description

Non-reservation Price Equilibria and Consumer Search

Reservation price equilibria (RPE) do not accurately assess market power in  consumer search markets. In most search markets, consumers do not know important elements of the environment in which they search (such as, for example, firms' cost). We argue that when consumers learn when searching, RPE suffer from theoretical issues, such as non-existence and critical dependence on specific out-of-equilibrium beliefs. We characterize equilibria where consumers rationally choose search strategies that are not  characterized by a reservation price. Non-RPE always exist and do not depend on specific out-of-equilibrium beliefs. Non-RPE have active consumer search and are consistent with recent empirical findings.

 

Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics

Sir Clive Granger Building
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 5458
Enquiries: jose.guinotsaporta@nottingham.ac.uk
Experiments: cedex@nottingham.ac.uk