• Media type: Report; E-Book
  • Title: Search Frictions, Competing Mechanisms and Optimal Market Segmentation
  • Contributor: Cai, Xiaoming [Author]; Gautier, Pieter [Author]; Wolthoff, Ronald [Author]
  • Published: Amsterdam and Rotterdam: Tinbergen Institute, 2016
  • Language: English
  • Keywords: D83 ; heterogeneity ; search frictions ; meeting technology ; matching function ; competing mechanisms ; C78 ; D44
  • Origination:
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  • Description: In a market in which sellers compete for heterogeneous buyers by posting mechanisms, we analyze how the properties of the meeting technology affect the allocation of buyers to sellers. We show that a separate submarket for each type of buyer is the efficient outcome if and only if meetings are bilateral. In contrast, a single market with all agents is optimal if and only if the meeting technology satisfies a novel condition, which we call "joint concavity." Both outcomes can be decentralized by sellers posting auctions combined with a fee that is paid by (or to) all buyers with whom the seller meets. Finally, we compare joint concavity to two other properties of meeting technologies, invariance and non-rivalry, and explain the differences.
  • Access State: Open Access