Outside Options and the Failure of the Coase Conjecture

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2014
Volume: 104
Issue: 2
Pages: 656-71

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

A buyer wishes to purchase a good from a seller who chooses a sequence of prices over time. Each period the buyer can also exercise an outside option, abandoning their search or moving on to another seller. We show there is a unique equilibrium in which the seller charges a constant price in every period equal to the monopoly price, contravening the Coase conjecture. We then embed the singleseller model into a search framework and show the result provides a foundation for the usual "no haggling" assumption.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:104:y:2014:i:2:p:656-71
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24