Purpose: Lower-limb exoskeleton systems enable people with spinal cord injury to regain some degree of locomotion ability, as the expected motion curve needs to adapt with changing scenarios, i.e. stair heights, distance to the stairs. The authors’ approach enables exoskeleton systems to...

Although many theoretical industrial organization models are based on the existence of a critical mass of exogenously “brand loyal” consumers, we find little empirical evidence supporting these assumptions in the orange juice retail market. There are very few loyal consumers. More importantly,...

Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, 20 December 2006, requires functional foods manufacturers operating in Europe to provide evidence that the health claims reported on the packaging are truthful. However, most applications reviewed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have been rejected,...

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/24/09.

The infant formula rebate program of the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) requires each state to hold an auction where the low-bidder among the three major manufacturers of infant formula became the sole provider of formula to the state, which issues WIC voucher...

This paper investigates the effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for food insecurity. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) temporarily increased SNAP benefits. We use that increase as a natural experiment to identify the causal effect of endogenous...

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) fundamentally changed the U.S. public patent system. This study examines whether and how the enactment of the AIA affects innovation-intensive firms' narrative R&D disclosure. Adopting a difference-in-difference design, we find that the enactment...

The three major infant formula manufacturers bid state by state to be the exclusive provider to poor families under the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, and all three compete for non-WIC customers at grocery stores. Previous studies explained the low WIC prices and the higher retail...

In a treatment-effect framework using Add Health data, we investigate whether adolescents gain weight when increasingly exposed to obesity in their social networks. We find that weight gain can be a reaction to an increase, but not a decrease, in exposure to obesity that is based on social ties,...