We examine retail and wholesale prices for a large supermarket chain over seven and one-half years. We find that prices fall on average during seasonal demand peaks for a product, largely due to changes in retail margins. Retail margins for specific goods fall during peak demand periods for that...

We develop a market-based paradigm to value the enhancement or addition of features to a product. We define the market value of a product or feature enhancement as the change in the equilibrium profits that would prevail with and without the enhancement. Conjoint data can be use to construct the...

Bayesian methods have become widespread in the marketing literature. We review the essence of the Bayesian approach and explain why it is particularly useful for marketing problems. While the appeal of the Bayesian approach has long been noted by researchers, recent developments in computational...

The primary emphasis of quantitative marketing is on the evaluation of firm policies for determination of marketing variables as well as the optimization of these policies. Thus, our methods of inference must apply to decision problems and to policy evaluation. In addition, the data we have...

Observational data on either individual or aggregate demand is often not sufficient to identify consumer preferences due to lack of variation in prices or product features, or the desire to study product features not currently available. Choice-based conjoint analysis offers a solution to this...

We present a Bayesian approach for analyzing aggregate level sales data in a market with differentiated products. We consider the aggregate share model proposed by Berry, Levinsohn and Pakes (1995) which introduces a common demand shock into an aggregated random coefficient logit model. A full...

Instrumental variables (IVs) are widely used to identify effects in models with potentially endogenous explanatory variables. In many cases, the instrument exclusion restriction that underlies the validity of the usual IV inference holds only approximately; that is, the instruments are...

We develop a Bayesian semi-parametric approach to the instrumental variable problem. We assume linear structural and reduced form equations, but model the error distributions non-parametrically. A Dirichlet process prior is used for the joint distribution of structural and instrumental variable...

The conventional wisdom in economic theory holds that switching costs make markets less competitive. This paper challenges this claim. We find that steady-state equilibrium prices may fall as switching costs are introduced into a simple model of dynamic price competition that allows for...