Standard 'New Economic Geography' (NEG) models assume mobile individuals settle in the region where they can earn the highest real income. But recent economic studies on 'Happiness' have accumulated empirical evidence suggesting most individuals - not just the poor - dislike living in regions...

Are labels good or bad for consumers and firms? The answers may seem straightforward since labels improve information, yet economic theory reveals situations where their introduction reduces the welfare of, at least, some market participants. This essay reviews the theoretical literature on...

We analyze credence goods markets in the case of two firms. Consumers know that the quality of the good varies but do not know which firm is of high quality. First, we show that the high quality producer may be unable to monopolize the market, or even to survive in some cases, in situations...

The paper considers the external validity of the growing set of literature that uses laboratory auctions to reveal consumers' willingness to pay for consumer goods, when the concerned goods are sold in retailing shops through posted prices procedures. Here, the quality of the parallel between...

This paper considers the effects of the opportunity to change partners on communication. We experiment a standard cheap talk game where a player observes a private forecast before disclosing it (truthfully or untruthfully) in a message that he/she sends to his/her partner. Two treatments are...

We report the results of an original experiment that was designed to test the strength and robustness of the attraction effect. Rather than the usual simple tests for this effect, we consider a conceptually simple consumer purchasing task where alternatives are however difficult to evaluate. For...