IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/kitwps/109.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The multiplier effect in two-sided markets with bilateral investments

Author

Listed:
  • Dizdar, Deniz
  • Moldovanu, Benny
  • Szech, Nora

Abstract

Agents in a finite two-sided market make costly investments and are then matched assortatively based on these investments. Besides signaling complementary types, investments also generate benefits for partners. We shed light on quantitative properties of the equilibrium investment behavior. The bilateral external benefits induce an investment multiplier effect. This multiplier effect depends in a complex way on agents' uncertainty about their rank within their own market side and on their uncertainty about the types and investments of potential partners. We study how the multiplier effect depends on market size and how it interacts with other important factors such as the costs of investment and the signaling incentives induced by competition for more desirable partners. We use our results to characterize equilibrium utilities in large markets. For small markets, our results lead to bounds on the hold-up problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Dizdar, Deniz & Moldovanu, Benny & Szech, Nora, 2017. "The multiplier effect in two-sided markets with bilateral investments," Working Paper Series in Economics 109, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:kitwps:109
    DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000078277
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/172259/1/1007190833.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5445/IR/1000078277?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lazear, Edward P & Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 841-864, October.
    2. Ed Hopkins, 2012. "Job Market Signaling Of Relative Position, Or Becker Married To Spence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 290-322, April.
    3. Leonardo Felli & Kevin Roberts, 2016. "Does Competition Solve the Hold-up Problem?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(329), pages 172-200, January.
    4. V. Bhaskar & Ed Hopkins, 2016. "Marriage as a Rat Race: Noisy Premarital Investments with Assortative Matching," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(4), pages 992-1045.
    5. Peters, Michael, 2007. "The pre-marital investment game," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 186-213, November.
    6. Heidrun C. Hoppe & Benny Moldovanu & Aner Sela, 2009. "The Theory of Assortative Matching Based on Costly Signals," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(1), pages 253-281.
    7. Szech, Nora, 2011. "Optimal advertising of auctions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(6), pages 2596-2607.
    8. Donald B. Hausch & Yeon-Koo Che, 1999. "Cooperative Investments and the Value of Contracting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 125-147, March.
    9. Konrad, Kai A., 2007. "Strategy in contests: an introduction [Strategie in Turnieren – eine Einführung]," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Processes and Governance SP II 2007-01, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Christian Ewerhart, 2013. "Regular type distributions in mechanism design and $$\rho $$ -concavity," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 53(3), pages 591-603, August.
    11. Deniz Dizdar, 2018. "Two-Sided Investment and Matching with Multidimensional Cost Types and Attributes," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 86-123, August.
    12. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dizdar, Deniz & Moldovanu, Benny & Szech, Nora, 2019. "The feedback effect in two-sided markets with bilateral investments," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 106-142.
    2. V. Bhaskar & Ed Hopkins, 2016. "Marriage as a Rat Race: Noisy Premarital Investments with Assortative Matching," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(4), pages 992-1045.
    3. Aner Sela, 2023. "All-pay matching contests," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 52(2), pages 587-606, June.
    4. Georg Nöldeke & Larry Samuelson, 2015. "Investment and Competitive Matching," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83(3), pages 835-896, May.
    5. Ed Hopkins, 2012. "Job Market Signaling Of Relative Position, Or Becker Married To Spence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 290-322, April.
    6. Sela, Aner, 2020. "Assortative Matching Contests," CEPR Discussion Papers 14598, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Chen Cohen & Ishay Rabi & Aner Sela, 2022. "Assortative Matching by Lottery Contests," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, September.
    8. Alessandro Cigno & Annalisa Luporini, 2019. "Student loans and the allocation of graduate jobs," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 339-378, February.
    9. Seungjin Han, 2019. "Pre-Match Investment Competition with Bounded Transfers," Department of Economics Working Papers 2019-01, McMaster University.
    10. George J. Mailath & Andrew Postlewaite & Larry Samuelson, 2017. "Premuneration Values and Investments in Matching Markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(604), pages 2041-2065, September.
    11. Heidrun C. Hoppe & Benny Moldovanu & Aner Sela, 2009. "The Theory of Assortative Matching Based on Costly Signals," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(1), pages 253-281.
    12. Chris Bidner, 2014. "A spillover-based theory of credentialism," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1387-1425, November.
    13. Poeschel, Friedrich, 2012. "Assortative matching through signals," IAB-Discussion Paper 201215, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    14. Ed Hopkins & Tatiana Kornienko, 2010. "Which Inequality? The Inequality of Endowments versus the Inequality of Rewards," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 106-137, August.
    15. Yoon, Kiho, 2011. "Optimal mechanism design when both allocative inefficiency and expenditure inefficiency matter," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 670-676.
    16. St-Pierre, Marc, 2016. "The role of inequality on effort in tournaments," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 38-52.
    17. Aner Sela, 2020. "Two-Stage Matching Contests," Working Papers 2005, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    18. Friedrich Poeschel, 2008. "Assortative matching through signals," Working Papers halshs-00585986, HAL.
    19. Zhang, Hanzhe, 2020. "Pre-matching gambles," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 76-89.
    20. Bidner, Chris, 2010. "Pre-match investment with frictions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 23-34, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    matching; signaling; investment; multiplier effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:kitwps:109. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fwkitde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.