Firms invest significantly in advertising with the intent of influencing consumers favorably towards their goods. Along with advertising, word of mouth also plays an important role in shaping consumer opinion about a firm's goods. In many contexts, word of mouth is affected by behaviors such as...

Casual empiricism suggests higher quality is associated with greater variety. However, recent theoretical and empirical research has either not considered this link, or has been unable to establish unambiguous predictions about the relationship between quality and variety. In this paper we...

We study the role of privacy in the market for mobile applications. For such programs used with smartphones and tablet PCs a very important market has emerged. Yet, neither the role of privacy on that market is well understood, nor do we have empirical evidence regarding its role therein. We...

A service provider sells to homogenous risk-averse consumers through a two-part tariff. The consumers have uncertain tastes toward the service. They subscribe the service before the uncertainty resolves. In contrast with the common view that a monpolist's optimal two-part tariff for homogeneous...

This paper analyzes consumer inattention in the market of checking accounts. I examine the behavior of consumers who keep account tariffs that are dominated, i.e. that charge higher costs for any amount of bank services consumed through the account, by tariffs available at the same bank and...

We consider a monopoly that sets a price and differentiated referral fees to spread product information along a simple consumer communication network (a chain). The profit-maximizing solution involves standard monopoly pricing and referral fees that provide consumers with strictly positive...

Independent of the left-right model of ideological structure, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food and agriculture are resented across the political spectrum in Switzerland. In the absence of any real experience with genetically modified (GM) food but faced with continuous exposure to...

Standard form contracts, or contracts of adhesion, appear to provide contradictory evidence for the operation of bargaining in the markets where they are common. Non-negotiated contract terms that seemingly benefit sellers to the detriment of buyers call into question the efficiency implications...

Many empirical studies of online price dispersion show that sellers post different prices for homogeneous goods. However, seller heterogeneity is difficult to control for and posted prices may not reflect price dispersion in actual transactions. We contribute to this literature by selling...