TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Cai, Xiaoming
AU  - Gautier, Pieter A.
AU  - Wolthoff, Ronald P.
        TI  - Spatial Search
        PY  - 2024/Feb/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16824
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16824
        AB  - This paper considers a random search model where some locations provide sellers with better chances of meeting many buyers than other locations (for example popular shopping streets or the first page of a search engine). When sellers are heterogeneous in terms of the quality of their product and/or the probability that a given buyer likes their product, it is desirable that sellers of high-quality niche products sort into the best locations. We show that this does not always happen in a decentralized market. Finally, we allow for endogenous location distributions and show that more trades are realized when locations are similar (in which case the aggregate matching function is urn-ball) but that quality weighted trade can be higher when locations are heterogeneous.
        KW  - search frictions
KW  - spatial equilibrium
KW  - sorting
        ER  -