Market transparency and consumer search—Evidence from the German retail gasoline market
- Author(s)
- Simon Martin
- Abstract
We estimate a model of incomplete information price competition where consumers endogenously
choose whether to use a price search website. We examine how consumer search and prices
would change under different transparency regimes. We find that aggregate consumer welfare
is maximized when the price search website lists the lowest 20% of prices (i.e., one station in
markets with less than five stations, and two stations in markets with more than five stations),
with consumer expenditures falling by 1.5% relative to a regime where all are listed.- Organisation(s)
- Department of Economics
- Journal
- RAND Journal of Economics
- Volume
- 55
- Pages
- 499
- No. of pages
- 814
- ISSN
- 0741-6261
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1756-2171.12485
- Publication date
- 12-2024
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 502013 Industrial economics
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/97b30d5d-2e82-4965-8828-ad3ab699f8fb