This paper determines the benefits and costs of firm-level advertising in a monopolistically competitive industry. The model is useful in an environment in which firm-level costs may be absent or imprecise. The empirical example uses data on the advertising for a new line of prune snacks by...

We study a heretofore unexamined type of product differentiation, horizontally differentiated products with differential costs, and apply the analysis to retail pricing of fluid milk products. The theoretical models yield unique predictions for the relationship among prices of the four...

We propose consumption inertia as a new explanation for asymmetric price transmission. Inertia in consumer demand enlarges retailers’ gains in gross profits from raising prices in response to higher wholesale prices and reduces gains from decreasing prices in response to lower wholesale...