We develop models of markets with procrastinating consumers where competition operates - or is supposed to operate - both through the initial selection of providers and through the possibility of switching providers. As in other work, consumers fail to switch to better options after signing up...

We develop a vertical differentiation model to analyze welfare implications of environmental policies in a competitive market with production and consumption heterogeneity. Consumers with heterogeneous preferences choose between non-green and certified green products, while producers with...

This paper examines the welfare effects of market-based (permits, taxes) and choice-based (voluntary emission certifications, eco-labels) environmental policy. My analysis shows that choice-based eco-labels can be a welfare-improving policy. However, these welfare gains occur through “green”...

Telemonitoring devices can be used to screen consumer characteristics and mitigate information asymmetries that lead to adverse selection in insurance markets. Nevertheless, some consumers value their privacy and dislike sharing private information with insurers. In a second-best efficient...

Increasing shares of intermittent renewable energies challenge the dominant way to trade electricity ex-ante in forward, day-ahead, and intraday markets: Coal power plants and consumers cannot react to the stochastic element of renewables, whereas gas turbines can. We use a theoretical model to...

When preferences are sensitive to context, firms may try to influence purchase decisions by designing the environment of consumption choices. Confirming anecdotal evidence on retailer marketing tricks, we show that competitive retailers exploit context-sensitivity by designing environments that...