We examine how consumers and financial markets in the United States react to two health warnings about mad cow disease: the first discovery of an infected cow in December 2003 and an Oprah Winfrey show on the potentially harmful effects that aired seven years earlier. Using a unique...

This paper investigates consumer reactions to changes in information provision regarding organic production. Quantitative analyses focus on the actual implementation of mandatory labeling guidelines under the National Organic Program. The unique nature of the fluid milk market in combination...

The typical situation faced by antitrust authorities is to analyze a proposed manufacturer merger using scanner data at retail-level. Starting with a benchmark model of manufacturers' and retailers' sequential Bertrand-Nash pricing behavior, I perform counterfactual experiments to explore the...

Sellers of almost any product or service rarely keep their prices constant through time, and frequently offer price discounts or sales. This paper investigates an explanation of sales as a way for uninformed consumers to be willing to experience the product, and learn about its fit, and where...

This paper examines the importance of income effects in purchase decisions for every-day products by analyzing the effect of gasoline prices on grocery expenditures. Using detailed scanner data from a large grocery chain as well as data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), we show that...