题目：Consumer Search with Repeated Purchases

时间： 1月14日14:00-16:00

地点：中欧平台武东路校区106

演讲者：陈勇民教授，美国科罗拉多大学

摘要：We study search markets in which consumers may buy a differentiated product in multiple periods. Anticipating repeated purchases, consumers will search more intensively---as if search cost were lower---with higher reservation values. This dynamic search effect interacts with firms' pricing incentives, yielding a rich set of novel insights on how search markets function, including: (i) The dynamic search effect, while generally beneficial, impacts (consumer and social) welfare non-monotonically because it can motivate firms to raise future prices that reduce total output. (ii) Increases in search cost can boost welfare by changing the market equilibrium from partial to full consumer participation. (iii) When price discrimination is feasible, firms will discriminate against returning customers; yet no consumer switches supplier if there is no switching cost. (iv) If there are switching---in addition to search---costs, equilibrium switching may occur and welfare can have a U-shaped relationship with switching cost.