Gatekeeper Competition

I model access to influence as a two-sided matching market between a continuum of experts and two vertically differentiated gatekeepers under sequential directed search. Real-world examples include academic publishing, venture capital, job search or political agenda setting. The equilibrium is unique and exhibits red tape in the form of wasteful fees or excessive delay. However, only the top gatekeeper artificially delays matches to increase competition, a prediction that matches observed patterns within academic publishing. This delay at the top often improves equilibrium sorting and thereby enhances aggregate match surplus