We develop a word‐of‐mouth search model where information flows from the old to the new generation for an experience good with unknown quality. We study the features of the social network that determine product quality and welfare and characterize the demand‐side (under provision of search effort) and supply‐side (inefficient entry by firms) factors that result in inefficiencies. One striking result is to show that the more connected but also the less‐unequal a friendship network is (in the sense of second order stochastic dominance of the degree distribution), the less can disreputable (low‐quality) firms thrive in equilibrium.

中文翻译：

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口碑传播和搜索

我们开发了口碑搜索模型，其中信息从旧一代流向了新一代，从而获得了质量未知的良好体验。我们研究了决定产品质量和福利的社交网络的特征，并描述了导致效率低下的需求方（在提供搜索努力的情况下）和供应方（公司进入效率低）的因素。一个引人注目的结果是，友谊网络的联系程度越高但不平等程度就越低（从度分布的二阶随机支配意义上来说），享有声誉的（低质量）企业在平衡中蓬勃发展的可能性就越小。