The recent economic downturn has made consumers more focused on obtaining good value-for-money and on keeping their spending in check. This dissertation covers the implications of two recent developments indicative of such smart shoppingʺ: the increased popularity of the hard-discounterʺ...

Private brands are those manufactured or provided by one company for offer under another company's brand. They are often positioned as lower-price alternatives to national brands, and they are helping retailers to build sustainable relationships with their customers. The objective of this...

The past decade has seen growing antitrust concerns about the impact of private label goods on consumer welfare and competition in the grocery trade. Market investigations of the sector have been launched in several Member States, and there have also been legislative attempts to curb the power...

The current study aims to research the promotional strategies targeted to the consumer of a single-product category. Primarily, it focuses on the study of the influence made by the promotional strategies of Manufacturer brands (MB) in the sales of the whole category in general and, in the...

This paper examines the effects of supermarket loyalty programs on the demand for private labels (PLs). Using transaction level data on grocery purchases and individual level information on the membership of loyalty programs, I estimate a model of demand in which membership may affect the...

We examine the role of store branded "private label" products in determining bargaining outcomes between retailers and manufacturers in the single-serve brew-at-home coffee category. Exploiting a novel setting in which the dominant, single-serve technology was protected by a patent that...

We study how the introduction of private-label brands (PLs) affects retailers’ prices, demand, and profits, explicitly accounting for assortment adjustments of national brands (NBs) in retail stores. Using a detailed dataset on the U.S. beef market, we find that, when PLs are added to the...