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  • Search, Obfuscation, and Pr...
    Ellison, Glenn; Ellison, Sara Fisher

    Econometrica, March 2009, Letnik: 77, Številka: 2
    Journal Article

    We examine the competition between a group of Internet retailers who operate in an environment where a price search engine plays a dominant role. We show that for some products in this environment, the easy price search makes demand tremendously pricesensitive. Retailers, though, engage in obfuscation—practices that frustrate consumer search or make it less damaging to firms— resulting in much less price sensitivity on some other products. We discuss several models of obfuscation and examine its effects on demand and markups empirically.