Consumer Search and Vertical Relations: The Triple Marginalization Problem

This paper shows that the double marginalization problem signicantly underestimates the ineciencies arising from vertical relations in markets where consumers who are uninformed about the wholesale arrangements be- tween manufacturers and retailers search for the best retail price. Consumer search provides manufacturers an additional incentive to substantially increase wholesale prices. Consequently, all market participants are worse o and we call this phenomenon the triple marginalization problem. We also show that, when the wholesale price is unknown, retail prices decrease and industry prof- its and consumer surplus increase in search cost, whereas the opposite is true when the wholesale price is known.