Search and categorization

Chaim Fershtman; Arthur Fishman; Jidong Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.ijindorg.2017.10.002

Search and categorization

Chaim Fershtman, Arthur Fishman, Jidong Zhou

Department of Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The internet has not only reduced consumer search costs, but has also enabled more efficient and sophisticated search procedures. For example, online consumers can streamline their search process if appropriately defined categories of products and services are available. This paper proposes a search model with product categories where consumers choose which categories to search and firms respond to such more targeted search by strategically choosing the categories in which to list their products. The analysis focuses on the relationship between category architecture and the type of information which can be credibly disclosed by firms’ category choices to consumers.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	225-254
Number of pages	30
Journal	International Journal of Industrial Organization
Volume	57
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2017.10.002
State	Published - Mar 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Funding

We are grateful to the editor Alessandro Gavazza, an anonymous referee, Simon Anderson, Mark Armstrong and audiences in various seminars for their comments. Arthur Fishman gratefully acknowledges the support of the Israel Science Foundation for this research (Grant No. 935/14 ).

Funders	Funder number
Israel Science Foundation	935/14

Keywords

Categorization
Consumer search
Information revelation
Product differentiation

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10.1016/j.ijindorg.2017.10.002

Cite this

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Search and categorization

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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