This paper analyses the consequences of advertising in the children's breakfast cereal market. I take advantage of the fact that advertising directed at children is prohibited in the Canadian province of Quebec to examine the nature of advertising, and to determine whether the restriction...

This paper studies the effect of market structure on the diffusion of e-commerce technologies. These include self-serve electronic check-in/-out kiosks, online retail outlets, online customer-service centers, and e-banking, which reduce costs for firms relative to their old, non-electronic...

We consider a dynamic oligopoly model in which a seller may drop out of the market when demand for its product is insufficient in the first period. Buyers suffer some disutility if a seller exits the market and so their first period purchase decision does not only depend on current period...

We analyze a model in which agents have to make a binary choice under incomplete information about the state of the world, but also care about coordination with other agents who have the same problem. In some of these situations, the larger the share choosing the same alternative, the better off...

Do prices respond to macro shocks? Does the mere presence of international frontiers hinder trade? We revisit these questions by studying a dataset of online book prices for a number of US and Canadian retailers. We believe our dataset is well suited to this task for a number of reasons: (1)...

Over the past ten years there has been increased recognition of the importance of publicity as a means of generating product awareness. Despite this, previous research has seldom investigated the impact of publicity on demand. We contribute to the literature by (i) proposing a new method for the...

This paper develops and estimates a search and bargaining model designed to measure the welfare loss associated with frictions in oligopoly markets with negotiated prices. We use the model to quantify the consumer surplus loss induced by the presence of search frictions in the Canadian mortgage...

In this article I analyze the consequences of advertising in the children’s breakfast cereal market. I take advantage of the prohibition on advertising directed at children in the province of Quebec to examine the nature of advertising and to determine whether the restriction hinders...

There is a strong negative relationship between economic development and HIV/AIDS prevalence throughout the world. However in Sub-Saharan Africa where the epidemic is worst, this relationship does not hold. Some of the wealthier countries in this region have some of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS...

This paper takes advantage of the ban on advertising directed at children in the province of Quebec to study the effect of advertising in the children's breakfast cereal industry. Advertising is viewed alternatively as anti-competitive, if it increases brand loyalty, or as pro-competitive, if it...