Searching for Treatment

n markets for expert credence goods such as medical treatments and technical repairs, overtreatment is a common problem. However, when experts are free to choose treatment prices, this behavior is difficult to rationalize. We explain overtreatment in a model where consumers can seek treatment from an informed, liable expert or purchase speculative minor treatments from fringe firms, with costly search. Next to overtreatment, we show that wasteful search and the purchase of ineffective treatments may occur in equilibrium. Welfare is non-monotonic in search costs and can even be maximal when these are large. Expert competition may not mitigate market distortions.