The incentive to copy software depends on publishers' price and monitoring strategy. This paper analyzes how a publisher's strategy depends on the penalty for copyright violation and the cost of copying. It shows that changes in price and monitoring have qualitatively different effects on...

We show that returns policies increase manufacturer profitability by attenuating price competition between retailers. This effect holds only in the presence of end-user demand uncertainty. The conditions under which a returns policy raises the manufacturer's profit are weaker when retailing is a...

Suppose that consumers incur fixed shopping costs and choose stores according to advertised discounts. Then, the extent to which a store will discount advertised items should increase with the profit from other regularly-priced items. Bookstores customarily advertise discounts on bestsellers....