We investigate the impact of self-organized reputation versus certification by an independent institution on demand for online shops. Using data from a large Austrian price comparison site, we show that quality seals issued by a credible and independent institution increase demand more than...

We investigate the effect of market structure on market performance in the market for consumer electronics. This research is novel, because we exploit product life cycle information to build an instrumental variable for the number of firms in a market, a variable which hitherto had to be treated...

We investigate the causal effect of market structure on market performance in the consumer electronics. We combine data from Austria’s largest online site for price comparisons with retail data on wholesale prices provided by a major hardware producer for consumer electronics. We observe input...

We investigate the causal effect of market structure on market performance in the consumer electronics. We combine data from Austria’s largest online site for price comparisons with retail data on wholesale prices provided by a major hardware producer for consumer electronics. We observe input...

Setting prices ending in nines is a common feature of many markets for consumer products. This prevalence has been explained either by a specific image of such price points or by the exploitation of rational inattention on the part of the consumers who want to economize on the cost of...

This paper attempts to shed light on the pricing behaviour of firms or sellers in market places with price competition. In particular, it aims at testing the mechanism that lies at the heart of one of the most famous models in economics, namely the Bertrand model of competition. This model...