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Directed Search and the Bertrand Paradox

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  • Athanasios Geromichalos

    (Department of Economics, University of California Davis)

Abstract

I study a directed search model of oligopolistic competition, extended to incorporate general capacity constraints, congestion effects, and pricing based on ex-post realized demand. I show that as long as any one of these ingredients is present, the Bertrand paradox will fail to hold. Hence, I argue that, despite the emphasis that has been placed by the literature on sellers? capacity constraints as a resolution to the paradox, the existence of such constraints is only a subcase of a general class of environments where the paradox fails. More precisely, Bertrand?s paradox will not arise whenever the buyers? expected utility from visiting a specific seller is decreasing in that seller?s realized demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Athanasios Geromichalos, 2012. "Directed Search and the Bertrand Paradox," Working Papers 243, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:cda:wpaper:243
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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