Consumer search and switching cost workshop

Consumer search and switching cost workshop is dedicated to studies that examine the implications of consumer search and switching costs for market outcomes. Both theoretical and empirical studies are welcome. If you'd like to be included into the next call for papers, fill out this form.

#10: Consumer Search and Switching Costs workshop at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Friday, June 7 – Saturday, June 8, 2019

Workshop Organizers: Elisabeth Honka (UCLA), José Luis Moraga-González (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) , Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna, HSE Moscow)

  • Online Demand Under Limited Consumer Search and Limited Review Reading , Marton Varga (INSEAD) and Paulo Albuquerque (INSEAD)
  • Commitment and Cheap Talk in Search Deterrence: Exploding Offer vs. Buy-Now Discount, Siqi Pan (University of Melbourne) and Xin Zhao (University of Technology Sydney)
  • Search Duration, Raluca Ursu (NYU Stern School of Business), Qingliang Wang (Northwestern Politechnical University) and Pradeep Chintagunta (University of Chicago Booth School of Business)
  • Cursed Beliefs in Search Markets, Tobias Gamp (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Daniel Kraehmer (University of Bonn)
  • Measuring Long-Run Price Elasticities in Urban Travel Demand, Javier Donna (The Ohio State University)
  • Online Shopping With Endogenous Channel Choice: PC vs. Mobile, Shuo Zhang (Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis), Zhenling Jiang (Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis) and Hai Che (University of California Riverside)
  • Partially Directed Search for Prices, Eeva Mauring (University of Vienna)
  • Consumer Inertia and Market Power, Alexander MacKay (Harvard Business School) and Marc Remer (Swarthmore College)
  • Online Retail Platform, Consumer Search, and Filtering, Baojun Jiang (Washington University) and Tianxin Zou (Washington University)
  • Discounts and Deadlines in Consumer Search, Dominic Coey (Facebook), Bradley Larson (Stanford University) and Brennan Platt (Brigham Young University)
  • Vertical Bargaining and Obfuscation, Edona Reshidi (University of Vienna)
  • The Importance of Price Beliefs in Consumer Search, Pranav Jindal (UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School) and Anocha Aribarg (Ross School of Business, University of Michigan)
  • Consumer Search With Learning: A Structural Estimation of Gasoline Demand, Xiaosong Wu (Clemson University) and Frank Wolak (Stanford University)
  • Product Quality and Consumer Search, Jose Luis Moraga-Gonzalez (VU Amsterdam) and Yajie Sun (VU Amsterdam)

#9: Consumer Search and Switching Costs workshop at the Barcelona GSE Summer Forum, June 11-12, 2018

Workshop Organizers: Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna, HSE Moscow) José Luis Moraga-González (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Helena Perrone (UPF and Barcelona GSE), Vaiva Petrikaite (IAE-CSIC and Barcelona GSE), Sandro Shelegia (UPF and Barcelona GSE). The organizers gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D” (SEV-2015-0563), Patrikaite (ECO2015-74328-JIN), Shelegia (ECO2014-59225-P).

  • NATALIA FABRA (University Carlos III of Madrid), “A Model of Search with Price Discrimination” (with Mar Reguant)
  • GARTH BAUGHMAN (Federal Reserve Board of Governors) “Multi-Product Search Equilibria” (with Kenneth Burdett)
  • ALESSANDRO GAVAZZA (London School of Economics) “Regulations in Consumer Search Market: The Case of Credit Cards” (with Manolis Galenianos)
  • STEFAN WEIERGRAEBER (Indiana University) “Do Alert the Inert! Switching Costs vs. Limited Awareness in Retail Electricity Markets” (with Luisa Dressler)
  • ALEXEI PARAKHONYAK (University of Oxford) “Repeat Consumer Search” (with Andrew Rhodes)
  • MAARTEN JANSSEN (University of Vienna, HSE Moscow) “Searching for Service” (with Tony Ke)
  • MILENA PETROVA (Toulouse School of Economics) “Information Frictions on an Online Services Market”
  • JURRE THIEL (Free University Amsterdam) “History-Based Price Discrimination and Welfare: Evidence from the Dutch Mortgage Market”
  • ABI ADAMS (University of Oxford) “What Do Consumers Consider Before They Choose? Identification from Asymmetric Demand Responses” (with Jason Abaluck)
  • RALUCA URSU (NYU Stern School of Business) “Optimizing for Path-Dependence in Consumer Cross-Category Search” (with Daria Dzyabura)
  • SONG LIN (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) “Informational Complementarity” (with Tony Ke)
  • SARIT WEISBURD (Tel-Aviv University) “Providing Consumers with Sale Information: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Online Supermarket Shopping” (with Kfir Eliaz and Orli Oren-Kolbinger)
  • ANDRE TRINDADE (FGV EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance) “Measuring the Welfare of Intermediation in Vertical Markets” (with Javier Donna, Pedro Pereira and Tiago Pires)
  • ATABEK ATAYEV (University of Vienna) “Information Acquisition and Diffusion in Markets” (with Maarten Janssen)
  • MARCEL PREUSS (University of Mannheim) “Consumer Search with and without Tracking”

#8: University of Vienna, Austria, May 18-21, 2017

Organizer: Maarten Janssen, Sponsor: Austrian Science Foundation (FWF)

https://sites.google.com/site/consumersearchworkshop/home/consumer%20search%20workshop%202017.jpg
  • Mark Armstrong (Oxford), Ordered Consumer Search
  • Eeva Mauring (Vienna), Informational Cycles
  • Dmitry Lubensky (Indiana), Search Prominence and Recall Costs
  • Andrew Rhodes (Toulouse), Multiproduct Intermediaries
  • Chengsi Wang (Mannheim), Search platforms: Showrooming and price parity clauses
  • Marton Varga (INSEAD), Shocked by What People Write Online? How Uncovering Negative Reviews Impacts Online Search and Purchase
  • Elisabeth Honka (UCLA) The Effects of Advertising on Awareness, Consideration, and Choice: Evidence from the U.S. Auto Insurance Industry
  • Daniel Garcia (Vienna), Dynamic Pricing with Search Frictions
  • Vaiva Petrikaite (Autonoma, Barcelona), Privacy and Changing Tastes in Directed Search
  • Mart van Megen (University of Groningen), Search and Bargaining
  • Tony Ke (MIT), Bilateral Ratings and P2P Market Competition and Segmentation
  • Heski Bar Isaac (Toronto), Vertical Information Restraints: Pro- and Anti-Competitive Impacts of Minimum Advertised Price Restrictions
  • Maarten Janssen (Vienna), Wholesale Price Discrimination and List Prices
  • Sergei Koulayev (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB), No Shopping in the U.S. Mortgage Market: Direct and Strategic Effects of Providing More Information
  • Daniel Ershov (Toronto), The Effect of Consumer Search Costs on Entry and Quality in the Mobile App Market
  • Tobit Gamp (UCL), Deceptive Products and Competition in Search Markets with naïve Consumers
  • Jurre Thiel (VU Amsterdam), The Remuneration of Advisors in Markets for Complex Products
  • Martin Obradovits (Innsbruck) A Theory of Recommended Price Dispersion
  • Michael Choi (Iowa), Consumer Search and Price Competition

#7th Workshop on Consumer Search and Switching Costs, May 28-29, 2016, Zhejiang University (ZJU)School of Economics Hangzhou, China

Organized by Yongmin Chen

  • T. Tony Ke, MIT, Optimal Learning about Multiple Alternatives:
  • Matthijs R. Wildenbeest, Indiana University, Market structure and Search
  • Binglin Gong, Fudan University, Understanding Search Behavior: The Roles of Loss Aversion and Mental Costs
  • Maarten Janssen, University of Viena, Retail Channel Management in Consumer Search Markets
  • Makoto Watanabe, VU University Amsterdam, Market Structure and Advance Selling
  • Sandro Shelegia, Pompeu Fabra University, Search in Voting Environments
  • Nicholas Trachter, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Relative Price Dispersion in a Dynamic Model of Customer Acquisition
  • Anton Sobolev, University of Vienna, Information Exchange and Consumer Search
  • Alexei Parakhonyak, Oxford University, Consumer Search, Platform Competition and Shopping Malls
  • Babur De los Santos, Clemson University, Consumer Search on the Internet
  • Dmitry Y Lubensky, Indiana University, Pricing to Obfuscate and Competition
  • Marco Haan, University of Groningen, Price and Match-Value Advertising with Directed Consumer Search

#6: University of Gronningen, Netherlands, May 29-30 2015

Organizers: Marco Haan (m.a.haan@rug.nl), José-Luis Moraga-González (jose.l.moraga@gmail.com)

  • Martin OBRADOVITS (Goethe University Frankfurt): Going to the Discounter: Consumer Search with Local Market Heterogeneities
  • Stephan SEILER (Stanford University): Inferring Price Elasticities from Search Data Luis CABRAL (New York University): Rational Buyers Search When Prices Increase
  • Adriaan SOETEVENT (University of Groningen): Discount Competition
  • Alex SHCHERBAKOV (University of Mannheim): Measuring Consumer Switching Costs in the Television Industry
  • Dimitry LUBENSKY (Indiana University): Bundling and Obfuscation by a Monopolist
  • Arthur FISHMAN (Bar-Ilan University): Is Bigger Cheaper? Firm Size and Price Adjustment Dynamics
  • Josh SHERMAN (University of Vienna): When the Price You See is Not the Price You Get: A Field Study
  • Andrew RHODES (University of Toulouse): A Search Theory of Retail Market Structure
  • Raluca URSU (University of Chicago): The Power of Rankings: Quantifying the Effects of Rankings on Online Consumer Search and Choice
  • Régis RENAULT (Université Paris-Dauphine): Search Direction
  • Alexei ALEXANDROV (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau): No Shopping in the U.S. Mortgage Market: Direct and Strategic Effects of Providing More Information
  • Andras KISS (Central European University): Salience and Switching
  • Daniel GARCIA (University of Vienna): The Double Diamond Paradox
  • Makoto WATANABE (VU University Amsterdam): Competitive Search Equilibrium with Differentiated Products
  • Pim HEIJNEN (University of Groningen): A Theory of Recommended or "Advisory" Prices

#5: Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, May 15-16 2014

Organized by: Babur De los Santos (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University), Matthijs Wildenbeest (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University), Michael Rauh (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University). Special thanks to Michael Baye for financial support and hospitality.

  • Arthur Fishman (Bar-Ilan University): Search, Quality, and Superstars
  • Zsolt Sándor (Sapientia University Miercurea Ciuc): Consumer Search and Prices in the Automobile Market
  • José Luis Moraga-González (VU University): Do Higher Search Costs Make Markets Less Competitive?
  • Babur De los Santos (Indiana University): Search with Learning
  • Dmitry Lubensky (Indiana University): A Model of Recommended Retail Prices
  • Elisabeth Honka (UT Dallas): Simultaneous or Sequential? Search Strategies in the U.S. Auto Insurance Industry
  • Chris Wilson (Loughborough University): Sales Competition with Informative Advertising
  • Paulo Albuquerque (University of Rochester): The Effects of Product Innovation on Online Search and Choice
  • Marco Haan (University of Groningen): Retention Offers and Heterogeneous Switching Costs
  • Stephan Seiler (Stanford University): Consumer Search: Evidence from Path-tracking Data
  • Alexei Parakhonyak (Higher School of Economics): Advertising and Fixed-Sample Search in Duopoly Model
  • Mitsukuni Nishida (Johns Hopkins University): Search, Equilibrium Pricing, and Local Market Competition: Estimating Heterogeneous Search Cost in the Retail Gasoline Market
  • Sandro Shelegia (University of Vienna): Consumer Search and Observational Learning
  • Henry Schneider (Cornell University): Search Costs and Equilibrium Price Dispersion in Auction Markets
  • Vaiva Petrikaitė (University of Groningen): Consumer Obfuscation by a Multiproduct Firm
  • Sabyasachi Das (University of Vienna): Price-quality Competition and Consumer Search

#4: Higher School of Economics, Moscow May 30-31, 2013

Organized by Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna and HSE, Moscow)

  • Yongmin Chen (Colorado), Entry and Welfare in Search Markets
  • Arthur Fishman (Bar-Ilan University), Search with Categories
  • Espen Moen (Oslo), Exclusive dealing in decentralized markets
  • Babur de los Santos (Indiana), Estimating the Effect of the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price
  • Sandro Shelegia (Vienna), Retailers’ Cost Uncertainty and Consumer Search with Product Differentiation
  • Dmitry Lubensky (Indiana), A Model of Recommended Retail Prices.
  • Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna and HSE, Moscow) Non-Reservation Price Equilibria(re-visited)
  • Maria Arbatskaya (Emory), Food Allergen Liability and Regulation When Consumer Label Reading Effort Counts
  • Jose Luis Moraga-Gonzalez (Free University Amsetrdam), Do higher search costs make the markets less competitive?
  • Nuray Akin (Florida), Searching on a Deadline
  • Alexei Parakhonyak (Higher School of Economics, Moscow), Search Without Priors
  • Regis Renault (Cergy-Pontoise), Platform contents
  • Martin Obradovits (Vienna), Austrian-style gasoline price regulations: how it may backfire
  • Marco Haan (Groningen), Search when consumers are loss averse

#3: Higher School of Economics, Moscow June 7-8, 2012

Organized by Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna and HSE, Moscow)

  • Asher Wolinsky (Northwestern University), Search with Adverse Selection
  • Sagit Bar-Gill (Tel Aviv University), Equilibrium Long-Tailed Sales in a Search Model
  • Arthur Fishman (Bar-Ilan University), Absentee Consumers, Search, Advertising, and Sticky Prices.
  • Joshua Sherman (Vienna), An Empirical Analysis of Search Costs and Price Dispersion
  • Sergei Koulayev (Keystone Strategy, LLC), Using Consumer Preferences to Improve upon Popularity Rankings in Online Markets
  • Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna and HSE, Moscow) Non-Reservation Price Equilibria
  • Simon Anderson (Virginia), Yield Management with consumer search costs
  • Stephan Lauermann (Michigan), Common Value Auctions with Bid Solicitation
  • Jose Luis Moraga-Gonzalez (Free University Amsetrdam) Heterogeneous Consumer Information and the Effects of Competition
  • Sandro Shelegia (University of Vienna), Triple Marginalization and Consumer Search
  • Alexei Parakhonyak (Higher School of Economics, Moscow), Oligopolistic Markets and Search Without Priors
  • Hui Song (Paris, Cergy-Pointoise), Ordered Search with Asymmetric Product Design

#2: University of Gronningen, Netherlands, May 23-24, 2011

Organizer: Jose L. Moraga (ICREA, IESE and Univ. of Groningen), Sponsored by Marie Curie Actions and SOM Research and Graduate School (University of Groningen)

  • Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna): “Minimum Price Guarantees and Consumer Search.”
  • Jidong Zhou (University College London): “Multiproduct Search”
  • Elisabeth Honka (Chicago Booth): Quantifying Search and Switching Costs in the U.S. Auto Insurance Industry
  • Alex Shcherbakov (University of Mannheim): “Measuring Consumer Switching Costs in the Television Industry.”
  • Marielle Non (University of Groningen): Inert Consumers in Markets with Switching Costs and Price Discrimination
  • Andrew Rhodes (University of Oxford): “Small Switching Costs are Pro-Competitive”.
  • Zsolt Sandor (University of Groningen): “On the Identification of the Costs of Simultaneous Search.”
  • Joseph Cullen (Harvard University): “Measuring Consumer Switching Costs in the Wireless Industry”
  • Sandro Shelegia (University of Vienna): “Multiproduct Pricing in Oligopoly”
  • Chris Wilson (Loughborough University): “Being in the Right Place: A Natural Field Experiment on List Position and Consumer Choice”
  • Alexei Parakhonyak (Higher School of Economics, Moscow): Consumer Search Markets with Costly Second Visits.

#1: University of Groningen, Netherlands, December 17-18, 2009

Organizer: Jose L. Moraga (ICREA, IESE and Univ. of Groningen), Financed by Marie Curie Excellence Grant MEXT-CT-2006-042471.

  • Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna): “Sequential Search with Incompletely Informed Consumers: Theory and Evidence from Retail Gasoline Markets”
  • Andrew Rhodes (Oxford University): “Multiproduct Pricing and the Diamond Paradox.”
  • Chris Wilson (Loughborough University): “Market Frictions: A Unified Model of Search and Switching Costs.”
  • Babur de los Santos (Kelley Business School, Indiana): “Testing Models of Consumer Search using Data on Web Browsing and Purchasing Behavior”
  • Sergei Koulayev (Boston Fed.): “Estimating demand in search markets: the case of online hotel bookings”
  • Jose. L. Moraga (University of Groningen): “Consumer Search, Mergers and Product Differentiation”
  • Mark Armstrong (University College London): “Conditioning prices on search history.”
  • Heski Bar-Isaac (New York University): “Search Design and Market Structure.”
  • Matthijs Wildenbeest (Kelley Business School, Indiana): “Consumer Search and Prices in the Automobile Market”.
  • Paulo Albuquerque (Simon Graduate School of Business, Rochester): “Online demand under limited consumer search”.
  • Stephan Seiler (London School of Economics): “A dynamic demand model with consideration set forma