We present empirical evidence supporting that used cars sold by dealers have higher quality: (i) dealer transaction prices are higher than unmediated market prices, and this dealer premium increases in the age of the car as a ratio and is hump‐shaped in dollar value, and (ii) used cars purchased from dealers are less likely to be resold. In a model, we show that these empirical facts can be rationalized either when dealers alleviate information asymmetry, or when dealers facilitate assortative matching. The model predictions allow us to distinguish these two theories in the data, and we find evidence for both.

中文翻译：

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二手车市场的中介机构和产品质量

我们提供的经验证据支持经销商销售的二手车质量更高：（i）经销商交易价格高于无中介市场价格，并且该经销商保费在汽车使用年限中按比例增加，并且美元价值呈驼峰形，以及（ii）从经销商处购买的二手车被转售的可能性较小。在模型中，我们表明，当经销商减轻信息不对称性或经销商促进分类匹配时，这些经验事实就可以合理化。模型预测使我们能够区分数据中的这两种理论，并且我们找到了两者的证据。