网络市场中的"价格悖论"与逆向选择

按照传统微观经济学的观点 ,在网络市场上伴随着搜寻成本的下降 ,价格的离散应该下降。然而 ,相关的经验研究却得出了与一般看法相反的结果 :在线产品市场的价格离散不仅存在 ,而且其离散幅度大于离线产品市场的价格离散幅度。由此 ,产生了一个与传统经济理论相矛盾的“价格悖论”。本文从网络产品质量信息不对称性的角度 ,对网络市场中“价格悖论”现象提出了基于网络逆向选择视角的解释 ,并对消除和减少网络市场中价格离散、提高网络市场交易效率进行了探讨和分析。     

从消费者的搜寻成本看Internet的市场效率

本文从商品价格和商品属性两个方面分析了Internet市场中消费者的信息搜寻成本,并说明由搜寻成本所造成的Internet市场中价格水平和价格离散程度的现状,以及由这两个指标所测度的市场效率。     

网络购物商品价格离散成因与定价模式研究

价格离散是网上市场的必然现象。由于渠道差异、信息不对称、在线商品感知价值以及信息披露等因素的存在,使得在线商品的价格差异存在正负两方面的影响,网上零售商可以通过选择合理的定价模式以利用价格离散的积极作用来提高消费者信任度。     

我国畅销书网络市场价格离散现象研究

互联网的普及降低了消费者的信息搜寻成本,从而也降低了网络市场的商品价格与价格离散程度.但以往的实证研究指出,互联网并没有消除网络市场的价格离散.本文在回顾网络市场价格理论研究的基础上,采用实证研究的方法,特别是引入一线品牌和二线品牌的分类方法,研究了不同类型的畅销书在不同网络零售商之间的价格离散程度.研究结果证实,当前寻价成本理论和产品差异等理论均不能很好的解释我国网络市场价格离散的5神情况.而这些情况很可能是由于居于寡头地位的网络零售商的博弈,消费者应用网络的熟练程度差异,或网络零售商的不同发展战略等原因所造成的.     

Internet市场遵循“一价定律”吗？——来自天猫商城的证据

根据搜寻理论,线上市场由于极大地降低了消费者搜寻成本,应当实现“一价定律”,然而大量的证据表明线上市场存在显著的价格离散现象。文章选取了中国最大B2C电子商务平台天猫商城上高度同质化、标准化的虚拟产品——手机充值卡作为研究对象,发现确实存在价格离散现象。然后,利用固定效应向量分解模型和蒙德拉克模型,检验了哪些因素会影响价格离散程度,发现零售商异质性越大、商家数量越多,价格离散程度越大;商品越是畅销、商品价值越大,其价格离散程度越小。文章在数据上有较大创新,对已有文献形成有益补充;结论有助于增进对中国线上市场效率的认识,能够为Internet市场“效率悖论”提供一些线索和启示。     

求职表进行工作搜寻的必要性分析

在市场经济体制下,劳动力的供给者与需求者通过双向选择实现人岗匹配。然而,人岗匹配并非可以瞬时完成,求职者要想成功实现就业,工作搜寻活动是必不可少的。本文基于信息经济学理论,从信息不完全与价格离散两个方面分析工作搜寻行为的必要性,获取有效的就业信息是工作搜寻的目的,工作搜寻是求职者追逐利益的表现。就业困难者应尝试获取更多就业信息,对工资不满意的可扩大工作搜寻范围,加大工作搜寻力度。     

电子商务市场价格离散现象及其实证分析

价格离散是某一市场中相同时间点上,同质商品在不同卖家处售价不同的现象,信息不对称是价格离散形成的主要原因。传统市场中影响价格离散的往往只是商品成本、运输成本等少量因素,而在新兴的电子商务市场上,影响价格离散的因素比较复杂,包括配送与支付、购物便利性、交易可靠性、网站速度、信息提供方式、退货说明、进入市场时间等。     

电商异质性与线上价格离散

线上价格没有如预期一般走向收敛，反而普遍存在价格离散的情况。文章利用京东、国美、苏宁、天猫经营的六大类家电的价格数据来衡量线上价格离散度，并从电商异质性角度探讨其对于线上市场效率的影响。结果发现：首先，差异化的电商经营模式会通过调价行为、价格黏性以及消费者搜寻活动来加大价格离散程度。其次，电商平台通过其行业占有率以及市场渗透率来提高细分市场的可能性，从而加剧价格离散、降低市场效率。最后，相比平台式电商，自营式电商并没有通过增加调价频次和价格黏性来促进价格离散，反而有可能削弱自营电商的正向加剧效应。文章为线上统一市场的研究提供了新的研究思路，也为政府在电商平台监管和治理方面上提供了有益的借鉴。     

在线市场逆向选择的形成原因及解决方案

随着互联网室技术的广泛应用,在线市场蓬勃发展。然而互联网的发展并不能从根本上解决由于信息不对称所造成的市场效率低下问题。在线市场的虚拟性和数字产品的特性使逆向选择问题变得更加严重。解决在线市场的逆向选择问题,需要加强对在线广告的规范管理、进行营销方式的创新、建立权威的第三方认证机构、树立商品的良好品牌形象、建立健全的网上信用评估机制。     

房地产市场有效性研究——以北京和上海为例

利用北京和上海住宅市场与写字楼市场的数据,考察了市场中收益和风险的特征,并检验了它们是否满足市场有效性的要求。统计分析结果表明,超额收益时间序列的历史值对未来的收益有一定的解释能力,同时方差比检验也表明这四个房地产市场均不具备弱有效性;租金价值比的信息可用来对未来收益进行预测,因此半强有效性的假设也能够被拒绝;在我国的房地产市场中,价格对于市场信息的反应速度比较慢,消费者往往在信息不对称的情况下进行决策,市场搜寻时间偏长,交易成本偏高。     

Why is Price Dispersion Higher Online than Offline? The Impact of Retailer Type and Shopping Risk on Price Dispersion

When physically similar products, of similar quality, are offered by retailers both online and offline, we often observe that the dispersion in prices of these products online is greater than the price dispersion offline. This observation runs counter to early theories that suggested price dispersion online would be smaller than that offline due to the ease of search and information availability online. This paper investigates and provides an explanation for this puzzling phenomenon by examining the impact of two important drivers of price dispersion: retailer type and consumers’ shopping risk. Retailer type refers to whether a retailer is a pure offline, pure online, or dual channel retailer. Shopping risk is defined as the product of consumers’ perceived risk of shopping and the transaction uncertainty related to shopping at different types of retailers.A game-theoretic approach is adopted to model consumers’ price search and product purchase, as well as price competition within and across retailer types in online and offline markets. Equilibrium pricing strategies are derived for different retailer types competing for different consumer segments with different levels of perceived shopping risk. The impact of retailer type and shopping risk on online versus offline price dispersion are quantified, and conditions when price dispersion is greater online than offline are identified.Results indicate that price dispersion is greater online when the number of pure online retailers is sufficiently large and is increasing in the number of pure online retailers. In addition, a reduction in online shopping risk may actually increase online price dispersion. Results further suggest that even without any online sales, dual channel retailers should maintain their online presence for the purpose of information dissemination, which justifies the importance for pure offline retailer to incorporate webrooming strategies, where consumers can search for prices online but purchase offline.     

Pricing behavior in the online DVD market

Using a data set with of 5508 observations collected in the online DVD market, we compare the pricing behavior between online branches of multi-channel retailers (MCRs) and online-only retailers. We find that (1) prices by online-only retailers are lower than prices by online MCRs by an average of $1.51 or 6.8 percent; (2) the price dispersion for the popular titles is sharply lower among online-only retailers than that among MCRs online; and (3) online-only retailers change prices more often than online MCRs although price changes by both types are few. The evidence suggests that the pricing efficiency diminishes as the multi-channel retailing format dominates the online retailing market.     

“同品不同价”:价值感知与定价差异——基于当当网自营与入驻商家的比较

平台经济发展日益加剧网络零售市场竞争和价格离散,商家间同商品定价差异背后的理论逻辑亟待厘清。由于消费者对商品各价值特征存在差异偏好,从而产生不同程度的溢价意愿。研究表明:商家在质量、服务、评论反馈方面所代表的价值感知差异对不同商家商品定价差异的传导机制有显著影响。其中,商家间的服务体验价值差异对网络商品定价的提升影响效用明显,评论反馈所代表的信息价值在初次购买后的影响力减弱。面对价格分档,市场上价格敏感者更看重功能价值,追求物美价廉;中高价位商品的消费者更注重增值服务的体验价值感知。互联网零售商要有针对性地制定相关价值感知提升策略;相关管理部门要防范"感知过度"式哄抬物价以维护市场竞争秩序。     

Was the economics of information approach wrong all the way? Evidence from German grocery r(E)tailing

The economics of information approach suggests that as online retailing matures, information asymmetry will enforce the reduction of price dispersion online as providers will operate in conditions close to perfect competition. The internet has already become a part of our life and shopping experience. In Germany, over 20% of all electronic, media and leisure-related products are bought online. The role of digital channels is expected to increase further, especially in the latecomer sectors. Grocery retailing is one of such sectors still in the making and the share of online players in retail revenues is expected to grow drastically by 2020. Since online food retailing has not been studied thoroughly and little is known about price levels and dispersion between online and offline markets, our study fills this gap by showing that despite the theoretical predictions price dispersion exist both between online and offline grocery providers as well as across online retailers.     

Price dispersion of online air tickets for short distance international routes

The travel industry is currently experiencing a major transition as distribution channels change in response to developments in information technology. This study investigated whether online travel agents (OTAs) can offer air tickets with different prices given the lower search costs made possible by the Internet. This investigation first examined the hypothesis that price dispersion does not exist in air ticket offerings by OTAs. Hedonic regression models with log-linear form are then built to explain the pricing characteristics of air tickets. After accounting for differences in ticket attributes, ticket prices were found to vary by as much as 1.859% across OTAs. In other words, different OTAs were offering identical tickets at different prices. Statistically, significant interaction effects existed between airlines and OTAs, suggesting that travelers with specific airline preferences should expect to find different prices on different OTAs, even when ticket attributes are identical. This work thus revealed imperfections in the online air ticket market. It is therefore necessary for fare conscious air travelers to search different web services provided by OTAs to locate the best deal.     

Do market characteristics impact the relationship between retailer characteristics and online prices?

We propose that market characteristics interact with retailer characteristics to determine online prices. The retailer characteristics examined include—service quality of a retailer, channels of transaction provided by a retailer and the size of a retailer. The market characteristics capture the level and nature of competition, and the price level of a product. We utilize a Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) framework for capturing and testing the proposed interactions. The better fit between the model and the online market structure is reflected by a twenty-five percent increase in explainable price dispersion over results from comparable studies. Our study demonstrates that while retailer characteristics do impact online prices, this influence is significantly enhanced or diminished by the accompanying market characteristics.     

Online Price Search: Impact of Price Comparison Sites on Offline Price Evaluations

Consumers increasingly rely on Internet price comparison sites (PCS) to gain knowledge about the market. The prices generated by a PCS search can act as contextual reference prices and influence the attractiveness of prices encountered later as consumers shop offline at local stores. This paper demonstrates that both PCS retailer ratings and the shape of the PCS price distribution influence the impact of PCS search results on later price evaluations. A favorable PCS retailer rating increases the perceived validity of the price associated with that retailer, enhancing the impact of that PCS price on offline price evaluations (Study 1). The shape of the PCS price distribution can also influence later price evaluations, however this effect depends on the information provided by the PCS retailer ratings. When PCS retailer ratings are similar, implying similar validity for the associated prices, low PCS prices and those appearing more frequently in the PCS price distribution have more impact (Studies 2 and 3). When PCS retailer ratings are variable (some high and some low), the PCS price distribution effect occurs only when the PCS retailer ratings provide congruent information about price validity — that is, the most frequent price is offered by retailers with more favorable ratings. Study 3 shows that price validity inferences do mediate this result. Finally, we depart from the offline shopping context to show that when consumers choose a retailer directly from the PCS search results, the effect of PCS retailer ratings is stronger for high-priced retailers and for consumers who rely less on the retailer price as a heuristic to infer retailer service level. Based on our findings we offer insights for online and offline retailers when considering strategic responses, such as price matching guarantees.