Author: Cristina Daniela Nistor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 89
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This dissertation consists of three essays on product quality and pricing. Essay 1: Pricing and Quality Provision in a Channel: A Model of Efficient Relational Contracts The first essay analyzes how quality concerns affect relationships in a channel. A firm concerned about uncontractible quality for a customizable good has to pay higher prices to sustain a relationship with the supplier. If the customizable good has very volatile demand, premium payments on this good cannot be sustained. Instead, the downstream firm pays a premium for a good with more stable demand that is correlated with demand for the customizable good. I use a novel dataset containing sales made by a wholesaler to Asian restaurants in the Southeastern United States to test this prediction empirically. As predicted by the proposed model, if customizable goods have very volatile demand, the high end restaurants do not pay a premium on those goods but instead pay a premium for other goods with more stable demand. Essay 2: Third Party Marketing Approvals The second essay measures the effect of competition in a certifier market. When customers purchase new products, there is often a degree of uncertainty about their quality. A common solution is to rely on a third-party certifier to provide some form of accreditation that signals quality. However, the incentives of a third-party certifier may not be completely benign. Competitive certification markets may lead the certifiers to provide unduly positive evaluations of quality to gain market share or provide unduly negative evaluations in order to gain credibility with end-users. This paper exploits an unusual natural experiment to evaluate the extent to which third-parties can be relied upon to correctly report product quality. It focuses on the FDA's decision to allow third parties to prepare certifications for certain medical devices, and observes how this decision to introduce competition at the reviewer stage has affected the quality of products allowed to go to market. There is evidence that allowing third party certification leads to significantly lower product quality. However, experience with using a third party reviewer in the past diminishes the negative effect of reviewer competition. Essay 3: Layaway and the Quasi-Endowment Effect of Installment Payments The third essay explores the quasi-endowment effect. The paper evaluates how much consumers are willing to prepay for a purchase which will be experienced in the future. In particular, the results indicate that prepaid installment plans allow the consumer to start deriving utility for the purchase from the moment of the first payment. This quasi-endowment effect is felt only for goods that are purchased for own consumption.
Author: Hongyan Shi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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This dissertation involves three essays, studying firms' decision-making on marketing mix variables. Specifically, the first essay (Chapter 2) studies the effects of distribution channels on firms' advertising content decision. In many markets, consumers may not have full information of product features and prices when they shop. While consumers can search to acquire such information, manufacturers and retailers often advertise price, product, or both types of information to help resolve consumers' uncertainty. This chapter studies manufacturers' and retailers' advertising content decisions in either a centralized channel or a decentralized channel, in a market where advertising affects consumers' search behaviors and purchase decisions. I show that in a decentralized channel, advertising may include more information than in a centralized channel. Specifically, when a retailer in a decentralized channel makes its advertising decision before the manufacturer and the retailer decide on prices, it prefers more price-product advertising than in a centralized channel; otherwise, it prefers more price-only advertising and more price-product advertising than in a centralized channel. I also show that in a decentralized channel where the manufacturer decides on product advertising and the retailer decides on price advertising, there will be more price-only advertising than in a centralized channel. Finally, I examine the consequent effects of advertising strategies in different distribution channels on channel members' profitability, consumer welfare and social welfare. The second essay (Chapter 3) studies the effects of channel structure and types of consumer heterogeneity on a manufacturer's product quality decision. I show that a manufacturer's product quality decision depends on both its channel structure and the type of consumer heterogeneity. When consumers are heterogeneous either vertically on their willingness-to-pay for product quality or horizontally on their transaction costs, a manufacturer will provide the same or lower product quality in a decentralized channel than in a centralized channel. However, when consumers are heterogeneous on both their willingness-to-pay for product quality and transaction costs, a manufacturer may even offer higher product quality in a decentralized channel than in a centralized channel under certain conditions, and consumers, as well as the distribution channel, can benefit from an increase of consumer transaction cost. The third essay (Chapter 4) studies how firms with high service quality (i.e. the high-type) can use tipping policy to signal their service quality and distinguish from firms with low service quality (i.e. the low-type) when consumers are comprised of informed and uninformed consumers. I characterize the conditions under which tipping policy together with complete information price can be effective signal device. In addition, I show that when the ratio of the informed consumers to uninformed consumers is low, if the high-type's optimal decision is to choose to have a tipping policy under complete information, it will signal with a tipping policy together with a distorted price. Furthermore, I show that even when the high-type's optimal decision is non-tipping policy under complete information, it might strategically adopt a tipping policy to signal its service quality.
Author: Bin Shao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Eidan Apelbaum
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Brand name products
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Author: Fan Liu (Ph. D.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Pricing is one of the most vital topic within the theory of Microeconomics. A firm can use a variety of pricing strategies to maximize its profit, gain market share, enter a new market or prevent potential entrants. This dissertation contains three essays exploring the equilibrium effect of various pricing strategies. The first chapter, co-authored with David S. Sibley and Wei Zhao, examines the effects of two types of vertical restrictions that are found in the cigarette and soft drink industries. In one case, a manufacturer gives discounts to the retailer in return for a commitment that the manufacturers product be priced no higher than a specified competing product. We refer to this as a vertical MFN (VMFN). The second is an agreement where the retailer commits to price in such a way that its margin on the product is no higher than the equivalent margin on a specified competing product. We refer to this as a vertical margin constraint (VMC). We show that the VMFN results in equilibrium prices that are higher than in a benchmark case without the constraint. In contrast, the VMC constraint leads to uniformly lower prices. The distributional effects are different, too. The VMFN tends to raise manufacturer profits, if different manufacturers produce very similar products. The retailer is worse off. The opposite effects arise in the VMC case. The second chapter analyzes firms giving switching discounts to consumers who purchased from their rivals rather than own past customers. By analyzing a two-period duopoly model with horizontal differentiation, we find that when the intrinsic value of the product is not high enough to make sure that the consumers will buy at least one of the product, the dynamic price path featured in the previous literature involving a raised second period price for customers with relatively high valuation will be reversed. Moreover, offering switching discounts results in a profit lower than the benchmark case, where such a pricing strategy is unavailable. The third chapter discusses how bundled discounts affect firm's decision of extending the product line by versioning the product through horizontal differentiation or vertical quality degrading. We propose a framework showing that inter-firm mixed bundling schemes may incentivize the introduction of a differentiated product, while in the absence of bundling it may not be profitable to do so. However, the consumer's surplus gain as a result of intensified competition and increased variety of goods from versioning will be dominated by the negative welfare impacts of bundling.
Author: Wenjing Shen
Publisher: ProQuest
ISBN: 9780549994619
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 161
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Author: Astri Birgitta Chamberlain Muren
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Author: Kiyoshi Arakawa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumer behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 190
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Author: James Winslow Sawhill
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 128
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This dissertation is composed of three essays focused on strategic considerations for product development. In chapter I, I address the question of whether consumers equally weigh capital and operating costs when purchasing durable goods. This trade off is important to manufacturers as they determine how much of their product design and production costs should be dedicated to keeping operating costs low. I test this empirically using data from the automobile industry. Chapter II is also an empirical study which explores whether consumers are willing to pay for socially responsible products. The answer to this question is important for firms to address in their product development process as they decide whether they will gain more market share by producing a socially responsible product with somewhat higher costs or a low cost product which does not incorporate socially responsible practices. In this case, I use data on retail sales in coffee industry using fair trade practices as an exemplar of social responsibility. Chapter III addresses the question of how durable or reliable manufacturers of durable goods should make their products. Consumers will likely want to pay more for a more durable product, yet increased durability depresses replacement demand. I attempt to gain insight into this trade off by developing an analytical model of the interplay between consumers and a monopolist manufacturer of durable goods. The remainder of the abstract provides a more detailed summary of each of these chapters in turn. Chapter I explores whether consumers behave as if they are optimally trading off capital and operating costs when purchasing a durable good. I study this question using data on gas prices and automobile sales over the 20 year period, 1971-1990. This question is important for three reasons. First, it is interesting from a theoretical basis if consumers make this trade off optimally. Many theoretical models in marketing and economics make the fundamental assumption that consumers equally weigh current and future events when making decisions today. Yet there is some evidence, mostly from laboratory experiments, that consumers underweight future events. I attempt to explore this question in a market setting where the stakes are considerably higher. This research adds evidence to the debate about how much weight consumers place on future events when making choices today. Second, it is interesting to firms making product design decisions. If consumers underweight future events, then when making purchase decisions, consumers will view operating costs as less important than the upfront capital cost of the product. Finally, the answer to this question informs public policy. Many have argued that there is a need for the US to reduce gasoline demand per capita. Lower gasoline consumption would reduce environmental pressures, potentially dampen inflation, and allow more foreign policy flexibility in dealing with antagonistic regimes in oil-exporting states. While these rationale for reducing gasoline consumption have a normative flavor, and reasonable people may disagree as to the validity and motivations of this goal, it will nonetheless be useful to know the relative effectiveness of different policy levers in curbing gasoline consumption. For example, if consumers underweight fuel costs during the vehicle purchase decision, then a gas tax will be relatively less effective than a tax on gas guzzling vehicles. To study this question I develop a choice model of the automobile industry. I identify the weight the consumer places on capital v. operating costs by determining how much of the variation in automobile market share can be explained by variation in each of these two factors holding other product attributes constant. We use data from the period 1971-1990, a period over which gas prices and thereby operating costs experienced considerable variation. In order to model operating costs which are not known at the time of purchase, I account for the expectations of consumers about car usage and gas prices. I assume that consumers are aware that they will respond to changes in the gasoline prices with changes in their driving patterns. Consumers also know that gasoline prices are not stable, and need to form expectations about future gasoline prices at the time of the automobile purchase. To take account of this effect, I estimate an ARIMA model of US gasoline prices from 1960-1995, that is used as the by consumers in their expectations formation process. Taking car usage and gas price expectations together enables an estimate of future gasoline costs of operating the car in the future. I also account for consumer heterogeneity in miles driven, sensitivity to automobile price, and sensitivity to operating costs. Finally, I recognize that prices are not exogenously determined and attempt to model prices as market outcomes. Based on the results of the model developed, I find no evidence to support behavioral theories that consumers systematically underweight the cost of future events in real market settings. However, I find significant evidence that large portions of the population are not making the trade-off optimally. Some consumers underweight future operating costs (SUV drivers) while others appear to overweight them (hybrid drivers). Conservatively, at least 30% of the population is either drastically underweighting or overweighting operating costs when purchasing a new car. Chapter II addresses the question of whether consumers are willing to pay for corporate social responsibility(CSR). This question is important in an environment where CSR is ubiquitous, yet it is unclear that these programs actually pay off for the firms that sponsor them. For example, consider Target's program to donate 1% of all retail sales to United Way local charities. Do consumers really want their money spent this way? Are consumers happily paying 1% higher prices or are they switching to a competitor which does not donate a portion of revenues to charity? Who is making the donation in the end, Target's shareholders or customers? From a social planner's perspective, the point is largely moot, yet to the shareholders of Target and many other firms practicing CSR, the question is crucially important. I endeavor to study this question within the context of the coffee industry, an important and sizeable commodity market. In particular, I explore the impact of Fair-Trade (FT) certification on the retail coffee market. FT is a social and ethical movement that supports the ethical production of coffee and other products largely in third world countries. Coffee can be FT certified by adhering to FT standards. Once certified, FT coffee is distinguished from non-FT by distinctive labeling visible to the consumer who is deciding which coffee product to select from the supermarket shelf. The analytical strategy for this paper is to first estimate the price premium commanded by FT coffee over non-FT coffees through ordinary least squares (OLS) and Fixed Effects hedonic price regressions. However, these tools do not allow us to disentangle the portion of the price premium which is due to supply considerations (i.e., FT certification costs) from the portion which is due to consumers' willingness to pay for FT coffee because they want to support socially responsible coffee production. To parse out willingness to pay from the overall price premium, I specify a brand choice model similar to the model used in chapter I. Using hedonic price regressions I establish that FT coffee carries a price premium of $1.74 per 12-16 oz. It seems likely that at least a portion of this premium is due to increased consumer willingness to pay for FT coffee. However, I cannot rule out the possibility that the price premium is a result of the added costs associated with that FT practices. The choice model specified in this paper should enable the allocation of the cause of the price premium we have now established for FT coffee to demand v. supply considerations. I hope to estimate this model in future research. Chapter III addresses the problem of how durable or long lasting manufacturers should they make their products. On the one hand a more durable product will be more desirable to consumers, since it will provide benefits over a longer period. Thus, a longer-lived product will command a higher price. However, it seems likely that unit production costs will increase as a product is made more durable due to the increased cost of more reliable materials and more exacting quality standards. In addition, a product which is more durable will be replaced less frequently. Ceteris paribus, less frequent replacement is less desirable to manufacturers, as the periodicity of the revenue stream increases. Manufacturers can trade off the benefits of durability with the costs to determine the optimal reliability or life for the goods they produce. In some sense, this problem is a classic trade-off between quality and cost. What distinguishes the durable goods reliability problem is that increasing quality depresses replacement demand. A common anecdote is that light bulbs could easily be manufactured to last longer, but are not in order to increase replacement sales. This question is important for manufacturers to understand from several perspectives. First, a manufacturer of a product with technology that is fairly static (e.g., light bulbs), needs to consider replacement demand in developing product designs. When technology is not static (e.g., computers), it is important to understand how the rate of technology advance will stimulate replacement demand. Should the products be designed to be more or less durable in the face of technological advance? An additional complication arises when the rate of technological advance may only be partially observable to the consumer (e.g. golf clubs). Finally, manufacturers need to consider "buying back" used durable goods from the.
Author: Abigail Britton Ferguson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Home schooling
Languages : en
Pages : 422
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My dissertation features three essays in industrial organization. The first two investigate aspects of potentially anticompetitive firm behavior in differentiated product markets. Contrary to previous analyses, requirements tying and bundled rebates by a firm with a monopoly in one market that competes in another may increase total surplus when product differentiation in the competitive market is endogenous. This result is stronger for tying than for bundled rebates, and holds for both horizontal and vertical differentiation (essays 1 and 2, respectively). Under requirements tying or bundled rebates, a multiproduct firm (horizontally) differentiates its product less from its rival's product than it would under independent pricing, suggesting a new efficiency consideration for requirements tying: a reduction in transport costs. A similar result prevails under vertical differentiation: when the tying firm controls either quality niche, it reduces the quality of its tied product; however, the rival may invest in the quality of its competing product. Hence, the effect on total surplus is ambiguous when tying or bundled rebates arrangements are permitted. The second essay employs an empirical model typically used to analyze differentiated product markets analyze a different economic environment: parents' decision to home school their children. Home schooling has grown in popularity as an alternative to public or private schools; some estimates place growth at 15 to 40% per year in the U.S.I empirically estimate the demand for home schooling as an alternative to these other modes of education, focusing on potential network effects in household decisions to home-school. I find support for the hypothesis that home schooling 'support groups' mitigate the cost of home schooling relative to the alternatives, but only occur in areas with a critical mass of home-schooling households. The data also suggest that as interest in home schooling grows, the local community's school district spending per child declines, increasing the probability that more parents will take their children out of public schools. Both phenomena suggest the existence of network effects in the market for primary and secondary education.
