This paper investigates the impacts of store brands (i.e., private labels) and retail characteristics (scanners, deli, bakery, and pharmacy departments, ATMs, restaurant and store size) on fluid milk prices using 1,740 supermarket-level observations from four cities. Non-parametric results...

We estimate the effects of new brands on market competition and consumer welfare in the U.S. processed cheese market. We find that an observed increase in consumer welfare was attributable mainly to an increase in the number of brands in the sample market, while the price effect, which measures...

A simple experiment is used to examine the effect of grocery store nutrition labels on the sales of microwave popcorn in the East Bay area of California. Using an incomplete demand system we estimate the impact of the nutrition labels on sales of healthy (products that merit a nutrition label)...

The paper brings Friedman's (1971) collusive game to data and investigates whether the merger between the fifth and fourth largest brewer (G. Heileman and Stroh) of the US beer industry in the mid 1990's had a significant impact on the incentives to collude in the industry. It does so by firstly...

The three major infant formula manufacturers bid state by state to be the exclusive provider to poor families under the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, and all three compete for non-WIC customers at grocery stores. Previous studies explained the low WIC prices and the higher retail...

This paper employs a nation-wide sample of supermarket scanner data to estimate a large brandlevel demand system for beer in the U.S. Unlike previous studies, this work estimates the ownand cross-advertising elasticities in addition to price elasticities. The dimensionality problem is solved...

Private label products have been studied ex tensively and theoretical frameworks were developed to show private label products lend their retailers bargaining power over factory brands. Because of unobservable fact ory or wholesale prices empirical evidence has been lacking. This paper, using an...

The introduction of new products is an important method of competition in many markets. Towards understanding its impact on competition and welfare, this paper estimates the effects of Crystal Pepsi being introduced by PepsiCo. Estimating a structural model of the soft drink market, the...

In some product categories, generic advertising is used to increase market demand of the category and at the same time brand advertising is used to entice consumers to choose the advertised brand over competing brands. This paper empirically investigates the optimal levels of brand and generic...