Adam Smith Business School

Professor John Quah, National University of Singapore

"Price heterogeneity as a source of heterogenous demand"
Tuesday, 13 May 2025. 16:00-17:30
Room 141A, Adam Smith Business School

Abstract

We explore heterogenous prices as a source of heterogenous or stochastic demand. Heterogenous prices could arise either because there is actual price variation among consumers or because consumers (mis)perceive prices differently. Our main result says the following: if heterogenous prices have a distribution among consumers that is (in a sense) stable across observations, then a model where consumers have a common utility function but face heterogenous prices has precisely the same implications as a heterogenous preference/random utility model (with no price heterogeneity).

Bio

John Quah holds a Distinguished Professorship at the National University of Singapore and is head of the Economics Department. He has previously held positions at Johns Hopkins University (2016 -- 2023) and Oxford University (1996 -- 2016). He is an economic theorist and has made contributions to revealed preference analysis and the theory of monotone comparative statics. He is currently an associate editor of Theoretical Economics and a co-editor of Economic Theory. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, a fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory, and an honorary fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. John Quah completed his undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore and obtained his doctorate from UC Berkeley.

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First published: 28 April 2025