OxTalks will soon be transitioning to Oxford Events (full details are available on the Staff Gateway). A two-week publishing freeze is expected to start before the end of Hilary Term to allow all future events to be migrated to the new platform. During this period, you will not be able to submit or edit events on OxTalks. The exact freeze dates will be confirmed on the Staff Gateway and via email to identified OxTalks users.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
Two horizontally differentiated firms compete for consumers who are partially informed about their future preferences. The firms screen consumers by offering menus of option contracts. Each consumer enters contracts with both firms. Subsequently, each consumer learns his preferences and purchases only one product. We find the unique equilibrium. Relative to spot pricing, consumption is distorted because each consumer is endogenously locked into one firm. If contracting is sufficiently early, so that consumers are less informed and hence less differentiated, consumers benefit; this reverses the conclusion in the monopoly case. Exclusive contracting further benefits consumers by intensifying competition.