We consider a network market where firms can covertly extract additional revenues from consumers, which we refer to as “obfuscation”. We examine why even consumers who are aware of obfuscation (“sophisticates”) continue to stick to obfuscating networks. Depending on the relation between...

We propose a dynamic framework for durable-goods with consumers who have different valuations and an arbitrary number of firms which compete in quantities in each period. Consumers' ability to behave strategically about the timing of consumption differs in the three environments that we analyze....

The common marketing practice of offering subscribers enticements to switch suppliers is explored. It is shown that this type of price discrimination is the natural mode of competition in subscription markets such as long distance telephony and banking and that it prevails even when the industry...

This paper applies the theory of memory for advertising, developed in the consumer behavior literature, to an industrial organization setting to provide insight into advertising strategies in imperfectly competitive markets. There are two firms and infinitely many identical consumers. The firms...

This study reveals two different rationales for consumer surplus-enhancing collusion. The first model considers two competitive firms in the final product market, each with one essential patent necessary for production. The equilibrium price under collusion is lower than the price under...

This paper identifies substantial flaws in how U.S. government agencies and courts assess the impact of proposed mergers by firms using broadband networks to reach consumers. Based on current market definitions, consumer impact assessments and economic doctrine, antitrust enforcement agencies...

This note presents an ordered search model in which consumers search both for price and product fitness. We construct an equilibrium in which there is price dispersion and prices rise in the order of search. The top firms in consumer search process, though charge lower prices, earn higher...

We address the effect of contextual consumer loss aversion on firm strategy in imperfect competition. Consumers are fully informed about match value and price at the moment of purchase. However, some consumers are initially uninformed about their tastes and form a reference point consisting of...

Energy efficiency is considered to be a win-win situation for both the economy and the environment. Producing products and services at lower energy input and related input costs can contribute to climate change abatement and economic competitiveness. Actual implementation of energy efficiency...

In this article, we provide a novel measure of product differentiation by observing consumer search behavior directly. We track individual consumers in a price search engine and generate a measure of distance in product space, based on goods surveyed conjointly within individual search episodes....