Search and switching costs

This thesis analyses markets with search and with switching costs. It provides insights in several important issues in search markets, including how loss aversion may affect consumer behavior and firm conduct, and how prices, welfare, and profits may change when an intermediating platform orders sellers based upon the preferences of consumers. The thesis also advances our understanding of what happens in markets with switching costs when firms can make retention offers to potential switchers, and how the first step of partner switch in the marriage market, infidelity, may relate to impatience.