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: