공개된 대안의 존재와 정보수집의 가치

초록

This paper studies a monopsonist-supplier model in which the buyer can choose one of two technologies; current vs. new technology. The production cost under the current technology is publicly known while on the new technology only the supplier can gather information on the exact production cost with some resources. Therefore, the buyer may or may not induce the supplier to gather information on the exact production cost under the new technology. I discuss how availability of the current technology and unobservability of the agent`s information gathering activity affect the buyer`s strategies regarding gathering information. The relative benefit of inducing to deterring gathering information increases as the publicly known technology becomes available except extreme cases. The unobservability of the supplier`s information gathering activity may increase the relative benefit of inducing to deterring gathering information.

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