258 MARK L. LAWALL
similar coexistence in Anglo-Saxon England). Indeed, Gregory argues: ‘Thus,
“householding” as a principle of economic behavior may straddle both the
market and nonmarket domains’ ( 2009 : 144).Supply – Demand – Price/Transaction
The definition of market exchange offered earlier emphasized the importance
of, the ‘visibility of ’, supply and demand in determining price. With the range
of institutions potentially shaping both the supply side and the demand side
of any transaction, this ‘visibility’ becomes a problematic variable in itself. In
other words, the extent and nature of knowledge surrounding the transaction
helps to shape the process.
At one end of the scale between knowledge and ignorance is the standard-
ized goods market with advertised prices and carefully packaged, labeled and
‘branded’ goods for sale (Fanselow 1990 ; on the development of such markets,
see Carrier 1994 ; Styles 2000 ; and on the importance of brands as shortcuts to
information, Grassl 1999 ; Harvard Law Review 2003 ).
At the opposite end of the spectrum, problematic consumer knowledge is
perhaps most apparent in studies of street markets, bazaars, garage sales, and
the like (i.e., markets in non-standardized goods). Fanselow ( 1990 ), shifting the
focus from Geertz’s emphasis on the chaos of the bazaar ( 1978 ; 1979 ), describes
such markets in terms of systemic behavior reducing risk and transaction costs.
Consumer knowledge is minimal and inaccurate, as there is little informative
packaging as to quality or origins of the product. Prices from merchant to
merchant cannot vary much without risk of being accused of price gouging,
so merchants mix good and bad quality goods to achieve some level of profit.
Consumers make frequent small purchases to reduce risk, and they try to deal
only with familiar merchants with whom they have had good luck in the past.
A parallel line of inquiry emphasizes the importance of social relationships
among competitive sellers (Varman and Costa 2009 ). Of course, the features of
the bazaar enumerated by Fanselow depend on the specific structures of the
markets being studied (cf. Rotblat 1972 ), but Fanselow’s presentation does pro-
vide a model for comparative purposes (e.g., Paulas 2010 ).
Other researchers have elaborated on the nature of price fluctuation and
price dispersion in different market contexts (Obst 1971 ; Alexander and
Alexander 1991 ). Significant variables shaping prices paid for goods include
the flexibility of the process through which prices are set and advertised
(modern grocery store chains being least nimble, small corner shops being
more so, street markets or bazaars being most flexible; see Caglayan, Filiztekin,
and Rauh 2008 ), the nature of consumer knowledge of prices and how that
knowledge feeds back into the price creation system (e.g., the active role of
‘first buyers’ in setting prices in Chinese fish markets; see Wang 1999 ), the