Focusing on the interaction between national brands and private labels, this paper has two main empirical contributions: i) a simultaneous system of demand (share), price and expenditure equations is estimated, and ii) differences in the structure of the local geographic market are incorporated...

Prices for nearly all basic commodity rose at unprecedented rates throughout early 2008, only to fall nearly as fast as financial markets and global economies began to collapse. Rising food prices in 2008 led to concerns that commodity price spikes would lead to more general food inflation, but...

This study tests the assertion that membership growth in credit unions is constrained by their unique structural features, such as their non-profit mission and member-based ownership. Although these features enhance inclusiveness, existing theory suggest that they work against efficiency when...

Covers theoretical and empirical work dealing with the structure, behavior, and performance of firms and markets and core issues in antitrust. Topics include: the organization of the firm, monopoly, price discrimination, oligopoly, and auctions. Theoretical and empirical work are integrated in...

This dissertation empirically studies demand complementarities in automobile purchases using newly collected Japanese household-level panel data, Keio Household Panel Survey. It is motivated by the observation that approximately one third of Japanese households own more than one automobile and...

In this work the dynamical framework which combines different aspects of innovative activity is analyzed. First the basic model with finite time horizon is constructed where the single agent (planner) is optimizing his stream of investments into the process of creation of new products together...

The dissertation is comprised of three papers. In the first two Chapters, I analyze the importance of competition, preference heterogeneity, and socio-economic/country-specific factors to explain the differences in penetration rates of mobile phone services across EUMember States. Chapter 1...

The first chapter investigates the factors that explain the level of technical efficiency of a firm. In an empirical analysis, a unique sample of about 35,000 firms in 256 industries from the German Cost Structure Census over the years 1992-2004 is used. The technical efficiency of the firms is...

To successfully market their products, industrial vendors must determine who participates in an organizational purchase decision and what their influence is. Previous research has shown that participation and influence can vary across products and purchase situations. Though industrial marketing...

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. June 2010. Major: Economics. Advisors: Amil Petrin and Patrick Bajari. 1 computer file (PDF); x, 124 pages, appendix pages 99-124. Ill.(some col.)