In this paper, we analyze the problem of store design when consumers have preferences with temptation and self-control, as introduced by Gul and Pesendorfer (2001). We say that a monopolist designs its stores when it chooses the number of stores to open and the quality and price of the goods to...

This paper generalizes the standard habit formation model to an environment in which agents form habits over individual varieties of goods as opposed to over a composite consumption good. We refer to this preference specification as ‘deep habit formation’. Under deep habits, the demand...

We determine empirically how the Big Three automakers accommodate shocks to demand. They have the capability to change prices, alter labor inputs through temporary layoffs and overtime, or adjust inventories. These adjustments are interrelated, non-convex, and dynamic in nature. Combining weekly...

This paper applies the insights of the literature on idiosyncratic shocks to inividual labor productivity to the dynamics of plant-level total factor productivity. Recent work in I.O. has emphasized the importance of firm- and plant-level heterogeneity in total factor productivity. Most of the...

We propose an approximation method for analyzing Ericson and Pakes (1995)-style dynamic models of imperfect competition. We develop a simple algorithm for computing an ``oblivious equilibrium,'' in which each firm is assumed to make decisions based only on its own state and knowledge of the long...

Recent empirical findings have emphasized post entry growth of survivors, as opposed to exit of inefficient and small firms, as the main source of growth over time in the average size of a cohort of entering firms. One proposed explanation for the post entry growth of survivors is financing...

Unobserved factors in differentiated product models can generate severe bias in price elasticities. We develop a generalized control function method and specification test for this setting based on the nonparametric identification results from Petrin (2005), who shows the assumptions under which...

This paper studies economies of scale and sunk entry costs in the US airline industry. Our main interest is in estimating how costs of entry and operation in a city-pair market depend on a company's own network and on the number of competitors in that market (i.e., endogenous sunk costs). We use...

There exists significant dispersion in output prices between firms in many industries. As a consequence the value of output is not necessarily a good measure of the quantity of output. Estimation of production functions for these types of goods is thus challenging if quantities and prices of...