cost in order to assess how well they match their needs. We propose a tractable model of price-directed sequential search …

Price comparison websites, where consumers can compare prices at a search cost that is close to zero, have become … increasingly common around the world. Using daily information on prices, click-throughs, and the number of retailers for a sample … the Swedish price comparison website PriceSpy on prices and price dispersion. We find that increased use by consumers …

in a tractable model of price-directed consumer search. We find that (i) firms' equilibrium pricing always induces …

prices. There are three distinct price dispersed equilibria characterized by low, moderate and high search intensity … intensity, increased competition does not affect expected price, leads to greater price dispersion and welfare declines. In … yields identical expected price and price dispersion but higher welfare than an infinite number of firms. …

This paper studies the role of imperfect information in explaining price dispersion. We use a new panel dataset on the … U.S. retail gasoline industry, and propose a new test of temporal price dispersion to establish the importance of … consumer search. We show that price rankings vary significantly over time; however, they are more stable among stations at the …