The theoretical literature of industrial organization shows that the distances between consumers and firms have first-order implications for competitive outcomes whenever transportation costs are large. To assess these effects empirically, we develop a structural model of competition among...

Understanding productivity performance is important to informing policy advice on how to improve productivity and therefore New Zealand's overall economic performance. Given data limitations inherent in international productivity comparisons, this paper is not intended to inform policy in...

We examine a model of consumer learning and price signaling where price and quality are optimally chosen by a monopolist. We find that price signaling causes the firm to raise prices, lower quality, and dampen the degree to which it passes on cost shocks to price. We identify two mechanisms...

Following FCC pressure to end bill shock, cellular carriers now alert customers when they exceed usage allowances. We estimate a model of plan choice, usage, and learning using a 2002-2004 panel of cellular bills. Accounting for firm price adjustment, we predict that implementing alerts in...

By April 2013, the FCC's recent bill-shock agreement with cellular carriers requires consumers be notified when exceeding usage allowances. Will the agreement help or hurt consumers? To answer this question, we estimate a model of consumer plan choice, usage, and learning using a panel of...