The theory of clearance sales is expanded and applied to explain why markups, markdowns, and the frequency of sales of merchandise sold by department stores have increased dramatically in recent years and why they differ across merchandise groups. Tha major theme of the paper is that the growing...

This paper reports on interesting changes in markdown pricing practices over time and differences in the pricing within a product line. The price discrimination and the uncertainty hypotheses appear to better explain the data than the peak load hypothesis. Fashion has become more important over...

A self-interest explanation is presented for opposition by some farm groups to futures markets. During the twenties and thirties, political oppositi on to futures markets was greater in the grain-producing states. The line elevator companies were prominent in these states and not others , and...