Buyer confusion and market prices

B-Tier
Journal: International Journal of Industrial Organization
Year: 2011
Volume: 29
Issue: 1
Pages: 14-22

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 employ a price setting duopoly experiment to examine whether buyer confusion increases market prices. Each seller offers a good to buyers who have homogeneous preferences. Sellers decide on the number of attributes of their good and set prices. The number of attributes bears no cost to the sellers and does not affect the value of the good to the buyers but adds complexity to buyers' evaluation of the goods. The experimental results indicate that the buyers make more suboptimal choices and that prices are higher when the number of attributes of the goods is higher. Moreover, prices and profits are higher than those in a benchmark treatment with perfectly rational (robot) buyers.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:indorg:v:29:y:2011:i:1:p:14-22
Journal Field
Industrial Organization
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25