Looking at a large number of markets, I find that (i) prices and variety are higher when there are two competing supermarkets than in those with a single store and (ii) the two effects are positively correlated. This pattern persists after controlling for differences across markets in a variety...

Fostering the uptake of heating technologies based on renewable resources is an important part of the EU energy policy. Yet, despite efforts to promote their diffusion, heating systems based on fossil fuels are still predominant. In order to better tailor energy policies to citizens preferences,...

Consumer reviews are vitally important to our modern economy. Markets become stronger and more efficient when consumers share their marketplace experiences and guide other consumers toward the best vendors and away from poor ones. Businesses recognize the importance of consumer reviews, and many...

We study the pricing decision of firms in the presence of consumer inertia. Inertia can arise from habit formation, brand loyalty, switching costs, or search, and it has important implications for the interpretation of equilibrium outcomes and counterfactual analysis. In particular, consumer...

Competition authorities and various digital platform regulations apply a double standard in their criticisms of Amazon's private brand programs. Amazon's private brand practices mimic those used by established retailers for decades. Comparably-sized retailers have orders-of-magnitude larger...

Regulators are responding to growing platform power with curbs on platforms' potentially biased exercise of power, creating urgent needs for both a workable definition of platform bias and ways to detect and measure it. We develop a simple equilibrium framework in which consumers choose among...

A reform movement is underway in antitrust. Citing prior enforcement failures, deviations from the original intent of the antitrust laws, and overall rising levels of sector concentration, some are seeking to fundamentally alter or altogether replace the current consumer welfare standard, which...

Basu (2006) argues that the prevalence of 99 cent prices in shops can be explained with rational consumers who disregard the rightmost digits of the price. This bounded rational behaviour leads to a Bertrand equi- librium with positive markups. We use data from an Austrian price com- parison...

First, we analyze how regular days off from competition and a time-dependent price pattern affect firm performance. Second, we examine the effects on firms' profitability from consumers' changing search- and timing behavior. We use microdata from gasoline retailing in Norway. Since 2004, firms...

The recent literature has brought together the characteristics model of utility and classic revealed preference arguments to learn about consumers' willingness to pay. We incorporate market pricing equilibrium conditions into this setting. This allows us to use observed purchase prices and...