This paper presents a search model, for which a decrease in the search cost may lead to lower prices and to a lower price variance, but may also lead to the opposite. This result contrasts with some predictions about the impact of the Internet on prices, but fits well with the empirical...

We estimate, for Portugal, the monetary loss per consumer of the existence of a minimum duration for mobile telephone calls. First, we estimate the demand for durations of calls, using individual level data and a Tobit model for panel data with individual random effects. The demand for duration...

This article estimates the price elasticities of the demand for mobile telephone calls and the demand for messages for Portugal. We use a panel of individual level data. In order to account for the unobserved individual heterogeneity and for the data censoring, we estimate a Tobit model for...

In Portugal, fixed telephony was liberalized in 2000. In this article, we estimate the impact on prices and consumer welfare of the liberalization process. We use a panel of household level data to estimate a structural model of demand for duration and number of calls of fixed telephony...

This article, analyzes the impact on consumer prices of the size and bias of price comparison search engines. we develop a model, related to Burdett and Judd (1983) and Varian (1980), and test experimentally several theoretical predictions. The experimental results confirm the model’s...

In this paper I identify an instance of multiplicity of equilibria, in search markets with production cost heterogeneity. I show that if firms may enter or exit the market, there may be multiple equilibria. I provide a monotonicity property, which is necessary and sufficient for uniqueness....

In this paper, we propose a methodology to estimate diffusion processes that differs from the standard practice in two ways. First, we model the nonlinear long-run trend through the Richards curve, which is more flexible than the standard alternatives. Second, we propose a dynamic specification...

This paper develops a model based on switching costs and technological uncertainty, which explains some aspects of the price dynamics of e-commerce. Switching costs and intertemporal cost correlation lock-in consumers. Firms initially charge low prices to build a customer base. If firms fail to...