Strategic complementarities and search market equilibrium

B-Tier
Journal: Games and Economic Behavior
Year: 2009
Volume: 66
Issue: 2
Pages: 959-978

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

In this paper, we apply supermodular game theory to the equilibrium search literature with sequential search. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for the pricing game to exhibit strategic complementarities and prove existence of equilibrium. We then show that price dispersion is inherently incompatible with strategic complementarities in the sense that the Diamond Paradox obtains when firms are identical and is robust within the class of search cost densities that are small near zero and support strategic complementarities. We also 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.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:gamebe:v:66:y:2009:i:2:p:959-978
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29