讲座题目：Consumer Search, Price Dispersion and Product Differentiation

　　主讲人：丁宇澄

　　时间：2017年5月18日下午3点

　　地点：B444

　　讲座主要内容：We extend Stahl (1989) to a differentiate-product setting where each firm offers a product that meets a consumer's need with some probability. Uninformed consumers search sequentially to examine if products match their needs and to obtain price information while informed consumers purchase from the matched seller with the lowest price. In contrast to Stahl (1989), when the search cost is low, the symmetric equilibrium price distribution has a non-convex support with a high-price segment and a low-price segment. Several interesting results arise in this equilibrium: recalls may occur, sales are less likely and expected market price is higher for a lower search cost. Moreover, the expected market price and firms’ profit are maximized at some intermediate search cost if first search is costly. We also study the equilibrium outcomes if consumers observe prices before search and compare random with price-directed consumer search models.

　　主讲人介绍：Yucheng Ding obtains Ph.D. from University of Colorado, Boulder and joins SEM of Wuhan University in 2015. He specializes in theoretical industrial organization and applied microeconomic theory. His current research includes counterfeit competition, consumer search, economics of innovation and patent litigation.