
In this article, I examine a model of oligopolistic competition in which consumers search for prices but have no knowledge of the underlying price distribution. The consumers' behaviour satisfies four consistency requirements and, as a result, their beliefs about the underlying distribution maximise Shannon entropy. I derive the optimal stopping rule and equilibrium price distribution of the model. Unlike in Stahl (1989), the expected price is decreasing in the number of firms. Moreover, consumers can benefit from being uninformed, if the number of firms is sufficiently large.
consumer search, search without priors, bounded rationality, entropy, jel: jel:L11, jel: jel:D83, jel: jel:D43
consumer search, search without priors, bounded rationality, entropy, jel: jel:L11, jel: jel:D83, jel: jel:D43
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 4 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
