This paper explores how social interactions among consumers shape markets. In a two-country model, consumers meet and exchange information about the quality of the goods. As information spreads, the demands evolve, affecting the prices and quantities manufactured by profit-maximizing firms. We...

What is the role of information disclosure for a multi-product seller? Westudy the optimal combination of selling mechanism and information disclosurepolicy for a profit-maximizing monopolist with products of distinct qualities.Provided that the buyer has unit demand and multiplicative...

Asymmetric information is an important source of inefficiency when assets (like firms) are transacted. The two main sources of this asymmetry are unobserved idiosyncratic characteristics of the asset (for example, quality) and unobserved idiosyncratic choices (actions done by the current...

It is shown that if there is adverse selection on seller’s ability in experience goods market, credible communication can be sustained by reputation motives in spite of the inherent conflict of interests between sellers and buyers. In the absence of “commitment” types, reputation motives...

We consider an oligopolistic market where firms compete in price and quality and where consumers have heterogeneous information: some consumers know both the prices, and quality of the products offered, some know only the prices, and some know neither. We show that if there are sufficiently many...

We consider how facilitating consumer's ability to compare firms' past performace with that of their competitors affects firms' incentives to invest in quality of experience goods. We show that, counterintuitively, when consumers are better informed and investment in quality is noisy, firms may...

Using a unique survey of 10,000 Chinese couples in 1991, this paper evaluates the impact of marriage market on life quality after marriage. Specifically, we compare three matchmaking means - self match, parental involvement, and friend introduction - and associate them with the degree of...

Signaling strategies which sellers of high quality securities, goods, or services employ to differentiate their securities or products from those of lower quality include: (1) developing a reputation for high quality, (2) certification by a respected third party (e.g., underwriters, bond rating...

This paper investigates the role of fiat money in decentralized markets, where producers have private information about the quality of the goods they supply. Money is divisible, terms of trade are determined endogenously, and agents can finance their consumption with money or with real...