We investigate how costly acquisition and exchange of customer-specific information affects industry profit and consumer welfare. Consumers differ in their preferences for competing brands and in their switching costs between brands. Brand-producing firms use their acquired knowledge of...

The two central pricing rules contained in most antitrust laws are prohibitions of below-cost pricing and prohibitions of discriminatory pricing. This article shows that the rule against discriminatory pricing may actually induce firms to charge exclusionary below-cost prices, even in the...

This note investigates the effects of a large horizontal merger on the shape of the 1-to-12 h price menus offered by parking garages in Paris. The merger caused low-end prices to increase proportionally more than high-end prices. This results in larger discounts on longer hours and hence in more...

Merger retrospectives often use a difference in differences (DID) approach to measure the price effects of mergers. As used in these studies, this approach implicitly assumes that the price in the control market fully controls for supply and demand shocks in the treatment market if the two...

In recent years, the cost to merchants of accepting credit cards has risen without any corresponding new benefits. This trend has sparked a wide-ranging struggle between merchants and banks, as merchants have begun to seek greater control over payment systems. The conflict is playing itself out...

Many recent game-theoretic models suggest that with asymmetric information it can be profitable for firms to acquire a reputation for toughness to discourage later entry. We identify institutional arrangements which firms must undertake if predatory commitments are to be credible. For example,...

In recent years, the cost to merchants of accepting credit cards has risen dramatically without a corresponding increase in the benefits. This trend has sparked a wide-ranging struggle between merchants and banks, as merchants have begun to seek methods for limiting payment costs. The conflict...

The U.S. Bankruptcy code changed dramatically with the passage of The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act Of 2005. This act increased the costs and decreased the benefits of bankruptcy to consumers. Supporters of the law claimed that it would benefit consumers as well as...

This paper examines how bank merger and acquisition activity affected small business lending in local U.S. banking markets between 1994 and 2000, focusing particularly on the role that community banks played in determining the ultimate effects of consolidation. During the 1994-1997 period, we...

The effects of antitrust policy are illuminated in an extensive series of enforcement actions against Microsoft. As antitrust intervention promises to benefit a broad spectrum of publicly traded firms, stock market reactions to enforcement quot;eventsquot; constitute forecasts of the net...