Competing Against Simulated Equilibrium Price Dispersions: An Experiment On Internet-Assisted Search Markets

Aurora García-Gallego, Nikolaos Georgantzís (), Pedro Pereira and José C. Pernías-Cerrillo ()
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José C. Pernías-Cerrillo: LINEEX, Universitat de Valencia

No 05-12, Working Papers from NET Institute

Abstract: In a four-treatment experiment, we test some of the hypotheses in García-Gallego et al. (2004) concerning competition among a number of firms of which some (or all) are indexed by a price-comparison engine facilitating buyers’ search process. In this paper, we isolate individual behavior from noise due to other players’ actions and learning, facing each subject with simulated rivals whose prices are extracted from mixed strategy equilibrium distributions. We find systematic deviations from both theoretical distributions and previous data obtained in sessions where all players were human. Specifically, departures of experimental data from the corresponding theoretical predictions are enhanced in this setting as compared to our previous research in which all agents were represented by human players. This suggests that the divergence between theoretical and observed price reported there should not be attributed to noisy learning and strategic uncertainty due to subjects’ interaction with other players. Furthermore, economic tests on players’ risk attitudes organize pricing behavior in meaningful, although not always compatible, ways.

JEL-codes: C91 D43 D83 L13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2005-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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