Consumer Search and Switching Costs

In recent years, there is a growing recognition that consumer search and switching costs play a crucial role in understanding market outcomes. Whether it is in physical or in online market environments (or in a combination of them), small search frictions may have important consequences.

The workshop hosts both empirical and theoretical papers in this growing research area. Particular recent topics of interest include:

• Pricing and consumer search in online markets
• The role of search engines and other forms of intermediation in the markets with search frictions
• Consumer search in relation to price discrimination, advertising, obfuscation
• Vertical relations
• Estimation and identification methods necessary to estimate market models with costly consumer search and switching
• Evaluation of economic policies facilitating consumer search and switching

This workshop, which started in 2009, takes place each year in a different location. 

Workshop organizers

• Maarten Janssen (University of Vienna, HSE Moscow)
• José Luis Moraga-González (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
• Helena Perrone (UPF and BSE)
• Vaiva Petrikaite (IAE-CSIC and BSE)
• Sandro Shelegia (UPF and BSE)

Workshop program

Download a pdf version of this workshop's program:

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