This note presents some simple, direct tests for search and dynamic demand behavior in retail gasoline markets. We exploit a unique market-level dataset that allows us to directly measure search intensity with daily web traffic data from a gasoline price reporting website, and perfectly measure...

I never owned a car as a student. If I had to go somewhere, I walked or took public transport. I paid little attention to petrol prices because they did not affect my weekly budget. However, if you talk to someone who owns a car or drives to work, you will likely find they pay attention to...

Information programs that leverage peer comparisons are used to encourage pro-social behavior in many contexts. We document how imperfect information generates heterogenous responses to treatments involving personalized feedback and peer comparisons. In our field experiment in retail...

This paper measures the impact of consolidation on cable television prices, product quality,profits and consumer welfare. I estimate a multi-product monopoly model using panel data on cable menus and costs in Canada from 1990 to 1996. Using counterfactual simulations, I find mean consumer...

This paper studies the determinants of Edgeworth Cycles, price leadership and coordination in retail gasoline markets using daily station-level price data for 110 markets in Ontario, Canada for 2007-2008. We find an “inverse-U” relationship between markets’ propensity to exhibit price...