(Quasi) uniqueness and restoring dynamics of price-dispersion market equilibria under search cost

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Mathematical Economics
Year: 2019
Volume: 81
Issue: C
Pages: 1-13

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

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

Abstract

We study existence, uniqueness and restoring dynamics of price-dispersion equilibria in a market for a homogeneous good. We assume that costs are heterogeneous across participating firms. Specifically, we rely on classical extreme value theory and some recent developments on fee-setting mechanisms to consider cost distributions that are Generalized Pareto. Our analysis provides results on the existence and uniqueness of a price-dispersion equilibrium that link the cost dispersion across firms with the search cost of consumers. If the former is large enough compared to the latter, existence and a form of uniqueness of price-dispersion equilibrium arise. In addition, we propose a natural best-response market dynamics that delivers convergence to the price-dispersion equilibrium, even if the market departs slightly from the Diamond paradox equilibrium.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:mateco:v:81:y:2019:i:c:p:1-13
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24