Persuasion Produces the (Diamond) Paradox

Mark Whitmeyer

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: This paper extends the sequential search model of Wolinsky (1986) by allowing firms to choose how much match value information to disclose to visiting consumers. This restores the Diamond paradox (Diamond 1971): there exist no symmetric equilibria in which consumers engage in active search, so consumers obtain zero surplus and firms obtain monopoly profits. Modifying the scenario to one in which prices are advertised, we discover that the no-active-search result persists, although the resulting symmetric equilibria are ones in which firms price at marginal cost.

Date: 2020-11, Revised 2021-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-gth, nep-ind and nep-mic
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arx:papers:2011.13900

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