Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:51:32.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

MONEY, SEARCH, AND COSTLY MATCHMAKING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2000

Gabriele Camera
Affiliation:
Purdue University

Abstract

I examine the robustness of monetary equilibria in a random-matching model, where a more efficient mechanism for trade is available. Agents choose between two trading sectors: the search and the intermediated sector. In the former, trade partners arrive randomly and there is a trading externality. In the latter, a costly matching technology provides deterministic double-coincidence matches. Multiple equilibria exist with the extent of costly matching endogenously determined. Money and “mediated” trade may coexist. This depends on the size of the probability of a trade, relative to the cost of deterministic matching. This outcome is inferior for an increasing-returns externality. Under certain conditions, regimes with only costly matching are welfare superior to monetary regimes with random matching.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)