Spatial Search

Xiaoming Cai, Pieter Gautier and Ronald Wolthoff

No 18858, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper considers a random search model where some locations provide sellers with better chances of meeting many buyers than other locations (for example popular shopping streets or the first page of a search engine). When sellers are heterogeneous in terms of the quality of their product and/or the probability that a given buyer likes their product, it is desirable that sellers of high-quality niche products sort into the best locations. We show that this does not always happen in a decentralized market. Finally, we allow for endogenous location distributions and show that more trades are realized when locations are similar (in which case the aggregate matching function is urn-ball) but that quality weighted trade can be higher when locations are heterogeneous.

JEL-codes: C78 D44 D83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18858 (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: Spatial search (2025)
Working Paper: Spatial Search (2024)
Working Paper: Spatial Search (2024)
Working Paper: Spatial Search (2024)
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:18858

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18858

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 ().