Selling Through Referrals

Vasiliki Skreta, Daniele Condorelli and Andrea Galeotti

No 12048, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Abstract We endogenize intermediaries’ choice to operate as agents or merchants in a market where there are frictions due to asymmetric information about consumption values. A seller has an object for sale and can reach buyers only through intermediaries. Intermediaries can either mediate the transaction by buying and reselling–the merchant mode–or refer buyers to the seller for a fee–the agency mode. When the seller can condition the minimum selling price to the intermediaries’ business model choice, all intermediaries specialize in agency. The seller’s and intermediaries’ joint profits equal the seller’s profits when he has access to all buyers. When the seller’s trading protocol does not depend on the business mode adopted by intermediaries, hybrid agency-merchant mode are adopted in equilibrium. Banning the agency mode can decrease welfare since the merchant mode is associated with additional allocative distortions due to asymmetric information compared to agency.

Keywords: Referrals; Intermediaries; Asymmetric information; Resale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-gth and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP12048 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Selling through referrals (2018)
Working Paper: Selling Through Referrals (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12048

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP12048

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().