A positive association between spousal education and individual earnings is a common empirical finding (e.g., Benham, 1974 and Rossetti and Tanda, 2000). The two most common explanations for this are sample selection and crossproductivity effects. Can spouses really benefit from each other’s...

This paper studies how the spouse’s productivity in the labor market affects one’s individual earnings when married. Theoretically, the high productivity of a spouse in a marriage could affect the other spouse’s earnings in two ways: negatively through specialization and division of labor,...

Many countries have undertaken central-bank independence reforms, but the years of implementation differ. What explains such differences in timing? This is of interest more broadly, as it sheds light on factors that matter for the speed at which economic reforms come about. We study a rich set...

Retailers’ tend to become trapped in a price-promotion war where price issues are dealt with on a short-term basis, indicating almost solely tactical choices. Since price is the only part of the marketing mix providing direct revenues to the organisation, it should also be of strategic...

Consumers pay a premium for Fair Trade coffee, often assuming that it mainly benefits poor coffee farmers. However, several studies report that most of the premium accrues to actors in the consumer countries, such as roasters and retailers. This paper analyses how the returns to Fair Trade are...

IKEA is one of the world’s largest retailers, but little is known about how IKEA impact incumbent retailers when deciding to enter a local market. Previous studies on the effects of big-box entry on surrounding retailers have also generated inconclusive results, and mainly been focused towards...

This paper quantitatively analyzes the importance of taste versus health in food demand, as well as the effect on consumers’ experienced taste of the non-intrinsic value of healthy labels. Our analysis is based on taste experiments and Vickrey second price auctions on potato chips and bread....

Applying microeconomic theory, we develop a forecasting model for firm entry into local markets and test this model using data from the Swedish wholesale industry. The empirical analysis is based on directly estimating the profit function of wholesale firms. As in previous entry studies, profits...

Gibrat’s law predicts that firm growth is purely random and should be independent of firm size. We use a random effects–random coefficient model to test whether Gibrat’s law holds at the firm level in the Swedish energy market. No study has investigated whether Gibrat’s law holds for...

Entry of firms into local markets has often been studied using administrative areas such as municipalities as the assumed relevant markets to study. However, administrative areas and the actual relevant markets based on local demand for firms’ products often need not coincide, which could bias...