Ordered search and equilibrium obfuscation

This paper demonstrates the incentives for an oligopolist to obfuscate by deliberately increasing the cost with which consumers can locate its product and price. Consumers are allowed to choose the optimal order in which to search firms and firms are able to influence this order through their choice of search costs and prices. Competition does not ensure market transparency — equilibrium search costs are positive and asymmetric across firms. Intuitively, an obfuscating firm can soften the competition for consumers with low time costs by inducing the remaining consumers to optimally first search its rival

Information matters: a theoretical comparison of some cross-border trade barriers

There is widespread evidence that geographical borders reduce trade. This paper presents a theoretical model capable of providing a succinct comparison of three broad forms of trade barriers involving i) trade costs, ii) localized tastes, and iii) information frictions. Despite being traditionally under-researched, it provides the stark finding that information frictions often provide the relatively more powerful marginal effect in reducing cross-border trade, and associated levels of welfare. This result remains robust under a number of extensions that further document the roles of product differentiation and alternative forms of trade costs

Market frictions: a unified model of search costs and switching costs

It is well known that search costs and switching costs can create market power by constraining the ability of consumers to change suppliers. While previous research has examined each cost in isolation, this paper demonstrates the benefits of examining the two types of friction in unison. The paper shows how subtle distinctions between the two costs can provide important differences in their effects upon consumer behaviour, competition and welfare. In addition, the paper also illustrates a simple empirical methodology for estimating separate measures of both costs, while demonstrating a potential bias that can arise if only one cost is considered

Sales competition with heterogeneous firms

To better understand sales behavior and price dispersion, this paper presents a substantially generalized clearinghouse framework. The framework can permit multiple dimensions of rm heterogeneity, and views rms as competing directly in utility rather than prices. As such, the paper can i) reproduce and extend many equilibria from the existing literature, ii) offer a range of new results on how rm heterogeneity affects sales behavior and market performance, iii) provide original insights into the number and type of rms that engage in sales, and iv) offer a foundation to assess and extend current empirical procedures

A generalized model of advertised sales

To better understand temporary price reductions or ‘sales’, this paper presents a generalized ‘clearinghouse’ framework of advertised sales and explores some applications. By viewing the firms as competing in utility and amending the conventional tie-break rule, we allow for multiple dimensions of firm heterogeneity in complex market environments. Moreover, we i) provide original insights into the number and types of firms that use sales, ii) offer new results on how firm heterogeneity affects market outcomes, iii) extend a common empirical ‘cleaning’ procedure, and iv) analyze a family of activities in sales markets, including persuasive advertising and obfuscation

Using a community of practice in higher education: Understanding the demographics of participation and impact

Research in the higher education literature argues that communities of practice (CoPs) can be effective staff development by helping academics to share teaching experiences and innovations. One of the key proposed benefits of CoPs involves the opportunity for early-career practitioners to learn from more experienced colleagues. This raises the question as to whether the benefits of a CoP differ across academics according to their teaching experience, seniority, or other demographic features. After establishing a CoP within a highly-ranked UK business school, this paper provides a statistical analysis of its ability to engage and influence different academics. As consistent with our hypothesis, the main findings show that that: i) junior staff were significantly more likely to participate in the CoP than senior staff, and ii) conditional on participation, junior participants were also more likely to engage with the CoP by transferring an idea they had learned into their teaching practice

Re-inventing the journey experience - A multifaceted framework to comfort in autonomous vehicles

Future vehicles provide scope to completely re-invent the journey experience. Technological advances have enabled fast progression of driving automation which has the potential to deliver efficient, accessible, sustainable and clean transport systems. Level 4 autonomous vehicles provide an exciting opportunity for drivers and passengers to engage in many activities unrelated to the driving task (e.g. reading, work communication/social networking on mobile technologies, relaxing, watching films etc.) leading to benefits in terms of comfort, pleasure and productivity. There has already been a lot of work looking at the active safety systems autonomous vehicles will need to use as well as the accompanying Human Machine Interface (HMI). For example, studies that look at the time it takes to hand over control from the vehicle to the occupant, and from the occupant to the vehicle. However, little is known regarding the nature of the secondary activities that drivers will want to undertake, and how this will impact occupant comfort, the vehicle architecture, its features and functional safety systems. To understand the ergonomic and engineering impact, first we must capture and fully understand user needs and their preferences in terms of the type of activities that could be undertaken in-vehicle. Re-inventing the journey experience is a research program addressing the lack of research around the user experience of autonomous vehicles. The main aims of the program are to: (1) understand potential for improving the travelling experience; (2) understand what the ergonomic, legislative, safety and comfort constraints are in order to identify design constraints; (3) understand how design innovations can support new occupant requirements. This paper presents a multifaceted framework which aims to guide researchers and industry professionals to more pragmatic vehicle concepts

Default effects, transaction costs, and imperfect information

We develop a decision framework with imperfect information to analyze the effects of transaction costs on the tendency for individuals to remain with a default option. We demonstrate how transaction costs can be a more important source of such default effects than commonly thought. A further, potentially surprising result shows that transaction costs are able to explain why some forms of default effects increase with the number of options

Being in the right place: A natural field experiment on list position and consumer choice

This paper uses a natural field experiment to better understand the reasons why individuals show a disproportionate tendency to select items placed in the top position of a list. After randomizing the order in which new economics research papers are presented in email alerts and tracking economists' subsequent download activity, we provide evidence of position effects and reject three common explanations regarding item order, choice fatigue and quality signals. Instead, after developing some novel tests based on the user-level nature of our data, we show that three more subtle explanations are consistent with the behavior of different groups of individual

When demand rises, do prices rise too?

Understanding how changes in demand affect market prices is fundamental within economics and yet, surprisingly, empirical evidence does not always support the standard theoretical predictions. Luke Garrod and Chris Wilson investigate and review some possible explanation