Whereas a large number of empirical studies have been devoted to analysing consumer demand for specific products, much less attention has been paid to the household's demand for product variety (the number of different products consumed in a specific time period). This paper analyses consumer...

Die öffentliche Diskussion über die Struktur des Lebensmitteleinzelhandels in Deutschland ist durch die Sorge über ein hohes Niveau (bzw. die weitere Zunahme) der Konzentration auf Unternehmensebene sowie eine Abnahme der Zahl der Verkaufsstätten geprägt. Die vorliegende Arbeit sucht nach...

Trotz der vielfach betonten Bedeutung von Diversifikationsstrategien vor dem Hintergrund zunehmender Liberalisierung vieler Agrarmärkte existieren nur wenige empirische Arbeiten zum Zusammenhang zwischen Diversifikation und dem Erfolg landwirtschaftlicher Unternehmen. Der vorliegende Beitrag...

This study examines family farms and characteristics affecting farm succession. Based on a farm survey, three aspects of succession are analysed in the paper: the probability of family succession; the likelihood of having a successor designated; and the timing of succession. Large and specialised...

Only a few studies have analysed staggering and synchronisation in pricing behaviour of multi-product firms. These studies used low-frequency data in an environment of high rates of inflation. This paper investigates staggering and synchronisation of weekly prices for ten food products in 131...

Substantial increases in retail concentration (particularly in Europe) raise concerns about the welfare implications for consumers. In a formal model, we argue that retailer market power reduces upstream firms incentives to introduce new products. On the basis of a survey of firms in German food...

It is well documented that a large share of new products does not survive their first year in the market. Research reported in this paper examined the relationship between product quality and innovation success. In contrast to existing product innovation literature that focused on industrial...

The last couple of decades have seen an increased retail concentration around the world, particularly in Europe. Views on the welfare implications of this severe change are controversial. Consumers might benefit because larger stores (owned by larger retailer chains) offer more product choices....

This paper investigates the relationship between farm exits and various farm, family, and regional characteristics during the period of 1991 to 1999. Using county-level data for 326 regions in western Germany, econometric cross section estimations indicate that exits from farming are strongly...