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Second Opinions and Price Competition: Inefficiency in the Market for Expert Advice

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Author Info
Wolfgang Pesendorfer
Asher Wolinsky

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Abstract

We consider a market in which an expert must exert costly but unobservable effort to identify the service that meets the consumer's need. In our model, experts offer competing contracts and the consumer may gather multiple opinions. We explore the incentives that a competitive sampling of prices and opinions provides for experts to exert effort and find that there is a tension between price competition and the equilibrium effort. In particular, the equilibrium fails to realize the second best welfare optimum. An intervention, that limits price competition via price control, increases welfare. Copyright The Review of Economic Studies Limited, 2003.

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Article provided by Blackwell Publishing in its journal Review of Economic Studies.

Volume (Year): 70 (2003)
Issue (Month): 2 (04)
Pages: 417-437
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Handle: RePEc:bla:restud:v:70:y:2003:i:2:p:417-437

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Winand Emons, 1994. "Credence Goods and Fraudulent Experts," Diskussionsschriften dp9402, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
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  2. Wolinsky, Asher, 1983. "Prices as Signals of Product Quality," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(4), pages 647-58, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Jacob Glazer & Thomas G. McGuire, 1991. "The Economics of Referrals," Papers 0020, Boston University - Industry Studies Programme.
  4. W. Pesendorfer & A. Wolinsky, 2000. "Second Opinions and Price Competition: Inefficiency in the Market for Expert Advice," Princeton Economic Theory Papers 00s18, Economics Department, Princeton University.
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  5. Pitchik, Carolyn & Schotter, Andrew, 1987. "Honesty in a Model of Strategic Information Transmission," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 1032-36, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Asher Wolinsky, 1993. "Competition in a Market for Informed Experts' Services," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(3), pages 380-398, Autumn. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Darby, Michael R & Karni, Edi, 1973. "Free Competition and the Optimal Amount of Fraud," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 67-88, April.
  8. Diamond, Peter A., 1971. "A model of price adjustment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 156-168, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. CRÉMER, Jacques & SPIEGEL, Yossi & ZHENG, Charles, 2005. "Optimal Search Auctions," IDEI Working Papers 293, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Dulleck, Uwe & Kerschbamer, Rudolf, 2003. "Price Discrimination in Markets for Experts' Services," CEPR Discussion Papers 4155, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Wolfgang Pesendorfer & Asher Wolinsky, 2000. "Second Opinions and Price Competition: Inefficiency in the Market for Expert Advice," Discussion Papers 1306, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Dulleck, Uwe & Kerschbamer, Rudolf, 2001. "On Doctors, Mechanics and Computer Specialists. Or Where are the Problems with Credence Goods?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3016, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Priyodorshi Banerjee, 2007. "Price Interventions in a Cournot Oligopoly with a Dominant Firm," Topics in Theoretical Economics, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 7(1), pages 1348-1348. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. In-Uck Park, 2000. "Cheap Talk Reputation and Coordination of Differentiated Experts," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1680, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  7. Patrick Bolton & Xavier Freixas & Joel Shapiro, 2004. "Conflicts of Interest, Information Provision and Competition in Banking," Economics Working Papers 760, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Uwe Dulleck & Rudolf Kerschbamer, 2005. "Price discrimination via the choice of distribution channels," Economics working papers 2005-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. [Downloadable!]
  9. Uwe Dulleck & Rudolf Kerschbamer, 2005. "Experts vs. discounters: consumer free riding and experts withholding advice in markets for credence goods," Economics working papers 2005-09, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Dulleck, Uwe & Kerschbamer, Rudolf, 2005. "Experts vs Discounters: Competition and Market Unravelling When Consumers Do Not Know What they Need," CEPR Discussion Papers 5242, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Cremer, Jaques & Spiegel, Yossi & Zheng, Charles, 2006. "Optimal Search Auctions," Staff General Research Papers 12662, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
  12. Uwe Dulleck & Rudolf Kerschbamer & Matthias Sutter, 2009. "The Economics of Credence Goods: On the Role of Liability, Verifiability, Reputation and Competition," Working Papers 2009-03, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Joel Shapiro & Patrick Bolton & Xavier Freixas, 2004. "Conflicts of Interest and Credible Information Provision by Specialized and One-Stop Banks," Econometric Society 2004 North American Winter Meetings 132, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
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