Suchergebnisse

A firm chooses a price and the product information it discloses to a consumer whose tastes are privately known. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition on the match function for full disclosure to be the unique equilibrium outcome whatever the costs and prior beliefs about product and consumer types. It allows for products with different qualities as well as some horizontal match heterogeneity. With independently distributed product and consumer types, full disclosure is always an equilibrium and a necessary and sufficient equilibrium condition is that all firm types earn at least the full‐disclosure profit.

Abstract We consider a game of strategic experimentation where agents are restricted to an all‐or‐nothing sampling strategy. The strategic interaction between agents due to informational externalities is affected by the sizes of the experimentation samples and the sensitivity of information to changes in sample sizes. There is experimentation only if the overall sample is large enough. Equilibrium may involve optimal, insufficient or excessive experimentation relative to a second‐best welfare benchmark. This unusual over‐experimentation result is associated not necessarily with large samples but with a low elasticity of the value of information with respect to the sample size.

Résumé Le résultat de Diamond 1971 montre que ta tarification en concurrence imparfaite se modifie de fa on spectaculaire on introduit une imperfection dans information des consommateurs objet de cet article est de faire le point sur les travaux qui explorent cette piste dans un contexte de produits différenciés et expliquer pourquoi un tel contexte est particulièrement approprié pour étudier impact de activité de collecte information des consommateurs sur la concur rence De plus la prise en compte de imperfection de information des consom mateurs permet apporter un éclairage nouveau sur la théorie des marchés avec produits hétérogènes.

Improved consumer information about horizontal aspects of products of similar quality leads to better consumer matching but also to higher prices, so consumer surplus can go up or down, while profits rise. With enough quality asymmetry, though, the higher‐quality (and hence larger) firm's price falls with more information, so both effects benefit consumers. This occurs when comparative advertising is used against a large firm by a small one. Comparative advertising, as it imparts more information, therefore helps consumers. Although it also improves the profitability of the small firm, overall welfare goes down because of the large loss to the attacked firm.

Empirical evidence suggests that most advertisements contain little direct information. Many do not mention prices. We analyze a monopoly firm's choice of advertising content and the information disclosed to consumers. The firm advertises only product information, price information, or both, and prefers to convey only limited product information if possible. It is socially harmful to force it to provide full information if it has sufficient ability to parse the information imparted, nor does it help to restrict the information voluntarily provided.

We derive equilibrium incentives to use comparative advertising that pushes up own brand perception and pulls down the brand image of targeted rivals. Data on content and spending for all TV advertisements in Over‐The‐ Counter (OTC) analgesics enable us to construct matrices of rival targeting expenditures and estimate the structural model. Using brands' optimal choices, these attack matrices identify diversion ratios, from which we derive comparative advertising damage measures. We find that comparative advertising causes more damage to the targeted rival than benefit to the advertiser. We simulate banning comparative advertising to find industry profits rise.