The effect of increased variance on the duration of search: A note

A search procedure with a finite number of possible periods of search is considered here. It is assumed that the offers at different periods are independent of each other, that there are no search costs, and that there is no discounting of future receipts. It is shown that if the offers come from a normal population with the same mean then the expected duration of the search, given that an optimal search procedure is followed, is independent of the variance.