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Strategic Complementarities and Search Market Equilibrium

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  • Michael T. Rauh

    (Department of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University Kelley School of Business)

Abstract

In this paper, we apply supermodular game theory to the equilibrium search literature with sequential search. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for strategic complementarities and prove existence of search market equilibrium. When firms are identical, the Diamond Paradox obtains and is robust within the class of search cost densities that are small near zero and support strategic complementarities. Price dispersion is therefore inherently incompatible with strategic complementarities. Finally, we show that a major criticism of the literature, that agents act as if they know the distribution of prices, can be justified in the sense of convergent best response dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael T. Rauh, 2006. "Strategic Complementarities and Search Market Equilibrium," Working Papers 2006-01, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:iuk:wpaper:2006-01
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Maris Goldmanis & Ali Hortaçsu & Chad Syverson & Önsel Emre, 2010. "E-Commerce and the Market Structure of Retail Industries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(545), pages 651-682, June.
    2. Moraga-González, José L. & Sándor, Zsolt & Wildenbeest, Matthijs R., 2014. "Prices, Product Differentiation, And Heterogeneous Search Costs," IESE Research Papers D/1097, IESE Business School.
    3. José Luis Moraga-González & Zsolt Sándor & Matthijs R. Wildenbeest, 2017. "Prices and heterogeneous search costs," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 48(1), pages 125-146, March.
    4. Qiao, Lei & Yu, Haomiao & Zhang, Zhixiang, 2016. "On the closed-graph property of the Nash equilibrium correspondence in a large game: A complete characterization," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 89-98.
    5. Fu, Haifeng & Yu, Haomiao, 2015. "Pareto-undominated and socially-maximal equilibria in non-atomic games," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 7-15.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Diamond Paradox; price dispersion; search; strategic complementarities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L0 - Industrial Organization - - General
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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