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Price Dispersion in the Lab and on the Internet: Theory and Evidence

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Author Info
Michael R. Baye () (Indiana University)
John Morgan () (University of California, Berkeley)

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Abstract

Price dispersion is ubiquitous in settings that closely approximate textbook Bertrand competition. We show that only a little bounded rationality among sellers is needed to rationalize such dispersion. A variety of statistical tests, based on datasets from two independent laboratory experiments and structural estimates of the parameters of our models, suggest that bounded-rationality-based theories of price dispersion organize the data remarkably well. Evidence is also presented to suggest that the models are consistent with data from a leading Internet price comparison site.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by The RAND Corporation in its journal RAND Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 35 (2004)
Issue (Month): 3 (Autumn)
Pages: 448-466
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Handle: RePEc:rje:randje:v:35:y:2004:3:p:448-466

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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. David, Douglas D & Holt, Charles A, 1996. "Consumer Search Costs and Market Performance," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(1), pages 133-51, January.
  2. Gladys López-Acevedo, 1997. "Quantal response equilibria for posted offer-markets," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 12(2), pages 95-131.
  3. Pratt, John W & Wise, David A & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1979. "Price Differences in Almost Competitive Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 189-211, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2004. "Price Dispersion in the Small and in the Large: Evidence from an Internet Price Comparison Site," Working Papers 2004-03, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Burdett, Kenneth & Judd, Kenneth L, 1983. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 955-69, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2001. "Information Gatekeepers on the Internet and the Competitiveness of Homogeneous Product Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 454-474, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Villas-Boas, J Miguel, 1995. "Models of Competitive Price Promotions: Some Empirical Evidence from the Coffee and Saltine Crackers Markets," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 4(1), pages 85-107, Spring.
  8. McKelvey Richard D. & Palfrey Thomas R., 1995. "Quantal Response Equilibria for Normal Form Games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 6-38, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Reinganum, Jennifer F, 1979. "A Simple Model of Equilibrium Price Dispersion," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(4), pages 851-58, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. McFadden, Daniel L., 1984. "Econometric analysis of qualitative response models," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 24, pages 1395-1457 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Cason, Timothy N. & Friedman, Daniel, 2003. "Buyer search and price dispersion: a laboratory study," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 232-260, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  12. Varian, Hal R, 1980. "A Model of Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 651-59, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Rosenthal, Robert W, 1980. "A Model in Which an Increase in the Number of Sellers Leads to a Higher Price," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1575-79, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Spulber, Daniel F, 1995. "Bertrand Competition When Rivals' Costs Are Unknown," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(1), pages 1-11, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Maarten C.W. Janssen & José Luis Moraga, 2000. "Pricing, Consumer Search and the Size of Internet Markets," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-042/1, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
  16. J. Rupert Gatti, 2000. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion with Sequential Search," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1368, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  17. Dufwenberg, Martin & Gneezy, Uri, 2000. "Price competition and market concentration: an experimental study," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 7-22, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Simon P. Anderson & Jacob K. Goeree & Charles A. Holt, 1998. "Rent Seeking with Bounded Rationality: An Analysis of the All-Pay Auction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(4), pages 828-853, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Plott, Charles R, 1982. "Industrial Organization Theory and Experimental Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 1485-1527, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Alan T. Sorensen, 2000. "Equilibrium Price Dispersion in Retail Markets for Prescription Drugs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 833-862, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(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. Glenn Ellison & Sara Fisher Ellison, 2006. "Internet Retail Demand: Taxes, Geography, and Online-Offline Competition," NBER Working Papers 12242, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Diego Escobari & Li Gan, 2007. "Price Dispersion under Costly Capacity and Demand Uncertainty," NBER Working Papers 13075, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Michael R. Baye & J. Rupert J. Gatti & Paul Kattuman & John Morgan, 2005. "Did the Euro Foster Online Price Competition? Evidence from an International Price Comparison Site," Working Papers 2005-09, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Teck H. Ho & Noah Lim & Colin Camerer, 2005. "Modeling the Psychology of Consumer and Firm Behavior with Behavioral Economics," Levine's Bibliography 784828000000000476, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Philip A. Haile & Ali Hortacsu & Grigory Kosenok, 2003. "On the Empirical Content of Quantal Response Equilibrium," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1432, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Maarten C.W. Janssen & José Luis Moraga-González & Matthijs R. Wildenbeest, 2004. "Consumer Search and Oligopolistic Pricing: An Empirical Investigation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 04-071/1, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2005. "Brand and Price Advertising in Online Markets," Working Papers 2005-08, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Ludovic Renou & Karl Schlag, 2008. "Minimax regret and strategic uncertainty," Economics Working Papers 1087, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan, 2005. "Probabilistic Patents," Microeconomics 0504004, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  10. Tülin Erdem & Kannan Srinivasan & Wilfred Amaldoss & Patrick Bajari & Hai Che & Teck Ho & Wes Hutchinson & Michael Katz & Michael Keane & Robert Meyer & Peter Reiss, 2005. "Theory-Driven Choice Models," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 225-237, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Sun, Ching-jen, 2005. "Dynamic Price Dispersion in a Bertrand-Edgeworth Model," MPRA Paper 9854, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2007. [Downloadable!]
  12. Michael R. Baye & John Morgan & Patrick Scholten, 2006. "Information, Search, and Price Dispersion," Working Papers 2006-11, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy. [Downloadable!]
  13. Juan Feng, 2004. "Optimal Allocation Mechanisms When Bidders Ranking for the objects is common," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 545, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
  14. Sha Luo, 2009. "Price Dispersion in the Online Auction Markets," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2009_07, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI). [Downloadable!]
  15. Chen, Yongmin & Zhang, Tianle, 2009. "Equilibrium price dispersion with heterogeneous searchers," MPRA Paper 16490, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  16. Wilfred Amaldoss & Teck-Hua Ho & Aradhna Krishna & Kay-Yut Chen & Preyas Desai & Ganesh Iyer & Sanjay Jain & Noah Lim & John Morgan & Ryan Oprea & Joydeep Srivasatava, 2008. "Experiments on strategic choices and markets," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 417-429, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Michael Rauh, 2005. "Complementarity, Search, and Price Dispersion," Game Theory and Information 0508008, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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