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The passage around this formula

Akerlof supplied the canonical model of a market in that condition. Where sellers know quality and buyers do not, buyers can rationally offer only the expected value of what is on offer; sellers whose goods are worth more than that price withdraw; the expected quality of what remains falls; the price falls again. The equilibrium is a fixed point of the form $p^{*} \;=\; \mathbb{E}\big[\, v(q) \;\big|\; c(q) \le p^{*} \,\big]$. where v(q) is the buyer’s value of quality q and c(q) the seller’s reservation value. Only sellers whose reservation value lies below the prevailing price participate, and the price is the expectation over exactly that self-selected pool [ 2 ] .

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