This thesis contains four essays which are all from the broader field of insurance economics. The chapters can be read independently, although there is a certain connection between the articles. Chapter 2, which deals with moral hazard, and chapter 3, which is on oligopolistic models in the...

The aim of this work is to establish a mathematically precise framework for studying games of capital accumulation under uncertainty. Such games arise as a natural extension from different perspectives that all lead to singular control exercised by the agents, which induces some essential...

This dissertation examines two problems that may arise in matching problems.The first two chapters deal with auctions for multiple units where bidders exhibitexternalities. The third chapter links risk aversion and information to unraveling inlabor markets.Auctions can lead to efficient...

Since Hotelling's (1929) seminal work, economists have tried to understand how product differentiation affects price competition. I study the product location decisions, on a vertical characteristic space, of two sets of horizontal competitors when the inputs supplied by the "upstream" set (the...

Information systems and the Internet have facilitated the creation ofused-product markets that feature a dramatically wider selection, lowersearch costs, and lower prices than their brick-and-mortar counterpartsdo. The increased viability of these used-product markets has causedconcern among...

It is well known that the Internet has significantly reduced consumers'search costs online. But relatively little is known about how searchcosts affect consumer demand structure in online markets. In this paper,we identify the impact of search costs on firm competition and marketstructure by...

Information systems and the Internet have facilitated the creation of used product markets that feature a dramatically wider selection, lower search costs, and lower prices than their brick-andmortar counterparts do. The increased viability of these used product markets has caused concern among...

The ready-to-eat cereal industry is characterized by high concentration, high price-cost margins, large advertising to sales ratios, and numerous introductions of new products. Previous researchers have concluded that the ready-to-eat cereal industry is a classic example of an industry with...

Product-line length, or variety, is a key competitive tool used by retailers to differentiate themselves from rivals. Theoretical models of price and variety competition suggest that both store and product heterogeneity are key determinants of price and variety strategies, but none test this...