When commodity prices rise, wholesalers and retailers of products derived from basic commodities respond by passing along at least a portion of the price increase to consumers. In this paper we examine whether firms respond differently to positive commodity price shocks than to negative...

In this article, we estimate a model of strategic rivalry between food manufacturers in product design and pricing. We derive a spatial structural model in which food manufacturers jointly select prices and the optimal attribute composition of their product lines. We find that manufacturers have...

This paper considers the relationship between product differentiation, store differentiation, and the equilibrium depth of the product assortment. We find an inverted U-shaped relationship between product differentiation and assortment depth, with the depth of the assortment rising at first and...

We examine variety pass-through effects that occur when multiproduct retailers adjust the length of their product lines in response to changes in wholesale prices. Studying variety pass-through is essential to understanding how wholesale price changes transmit into retail prices when variety is...

Previous theoretical explanations for retail price fixity show that fixed retail prices can be consistent with either competitive or imperfectly competitive behavior. We develop a conceptual model of retail pricing wherein fixed price points are facilitating mechanisms for tacit collusion. A...