A model is considered where firms internalize the regret costs that consumers experience when they see an unexpected price change. Regret costs are assumed to be increasing in the size of price changes and this can explain why the size of price increases is less sensitive to inflation than in...

This paper investigates the link between product quality and price setting for central processing units (CPUs). Using thousands of price quotes from a popular price-comparison website, we find that market fundamentals, such as the number of sellers, median price, share of convenient prices and...

We analyze the interaction of firm product quality and pricing decisions with financial distress and bankruptcy in the airline industry. We consider an airline's choices of quality and price as dynamic decisions that trade off current cash flows for future revenue. We examine how airline...

This paper accounts for quality improvements and adjustment costs in all inputs to U.S. manufacturing production. Adjustment processes for non-capital inputs are slower than previously recognized. Annual adjustment percentages are: labor 77, capital 30, energy 20, and materials 21. Factor prices...

A growth model is developed in which finite-lived individuals invest in human capital, and investments have a positive external effect on the human capital of later cohorts. Heterogeneous labor is the only factor of production, and higher-quality labor produces higher-quality goods. Stationary...

This paper examines the construction equipment resale market to assess whether equipment produced by the world's largest manufacturer of construction machinery, Caterpillar, experienced lower product quality in facilities that underwent contract disputes during the 1990's. Analysis of auction...

We analyze entry, pricing and product design in a model with differentiated products. Under plausible conditions, entry into an initially monopolized market leads to higher prices for some, possibly all, consumers. Entry can induce a misallocation of goods to consumers, segment the market in a...

Antidumping (AD) duties are calculated as the difference between the foreign firm's product price in the export market and some definition of 'normal' or 'fair' value, often the foreign firm's product price in its own market. Additionally, AD laws allow for recalculation of these AD duties over...

Though built with increasingly precise microfoundations, modern optimizing sticky price models have displayed a chronic inability to generate large and persistent real responses to monetary shocks, as recently stressed by Chari, Kehoe and McGrattan [2000]. This is an ironic finding, since Taylor...

This paper studies the endogenous determination of pricing to market, in a model with time dependent transportation costs, where the future terms of trade are random. Allowing time dependent transportation costs adds a dimension of investment to the pre-buying of imports, implying that financial...