We use the microdata underlying the Ethiopian CPI to examine the spatial dispersion in local prices and availability of 401 items across 106 cities. Remote cities face higher prices and have access to fewer products. Large cities also face higher individual prices but enjoy access to a wider set...

We study changes in markups across 72 product markets from 2006 to 2018. A growing literature has documented a rise in markups over time using a production function approach; we instead employ the standard microeconomic method, which is to estimate demand and then invert firms’ first-order...

Die Politik diskutiert aktuell einen Digitalen Produktpass (DPP) als zentrales Instrument zum Aufbau einer Circular Economy, die über eine möglichst lange Nutzung von Ressourcen ein wichtiger Enabler der Klimaneutralität ist. Obwohl es bislang noch kein einheitliches, branchen- und...

Existing structural analyses of the harmful effects of market consolidation focus on either product or labor markets in isolation, ignoring that product market competitors often compete for workers as well. This paper develops a unified framework for merger evaluation, finding that firms'...

This paper uses barcode-level price data for 16 advanced and emerging market countries over the period 2005-2022 to investigate the role of individual firms and product categories in aggregate inflation. We decompose inflation into the component due to macroeconomic shocks and the granular...

Interest in market power has recently surged among economists in many fields, well beyond its traditional home in industrial organization. This has focused empirical attention on markups, the ratios of price to marginal cost in product markets, and markdowns, the ratios of inputs' marginal...

We explore how firms respond to downstream product shocks. We find that affected firms increase R&D and make additional safety-related investments in their existing assets-in-place. These investments vary with firm capabilities and across shock severity. Competitors appear to vicariously learn...

This paper aims to (1) compare consumers' preferences between individual products and bundles as well as (2) investigate some of the factors involved in bundle characteristics that may affect consumer's preferences. Those factors are complementarity, price level, and discount level. An online...

When experience goods compete, consuming one product can be informative about value for similar untried products. We study a two-period model of duopoly competition in markets that have this feature and where firms can price discriminate between consumers based on purchasing history. Price...

We study changes in markups across 72 product markets from 2006 to 2018. A growing literature has documented a rise in markups over time using a production function approach; we instead employ the standard microeconomic method, which is to estimate demand and then invert firms' first-order...

Kartografiegeschichte erforscht Karten und die Akteure, welche die Karten erstellen. Die Kultur des Produzenten spielt dabei eine ebenso große Rolle, wie auch die Bedeutung des Karteninhaltes für den (vermeintlichen) Rezipienten. Dabei wurde in der Vergangenheit häufig außer Acht gelassen,...

Sellers often have the power to censor the reviews of their products. We explore the effect of these censorship policies in markets where some consumers are unaware of possible censorship. We find that if the share of such “naive” consumers is not too large, then rational consumers treat any...

Using U.S. NETS data, we present evidence that the positive trend observed in national product-market concentration between 1990 and 2014 becomes a negative trend when we focus on measures of local concentration. We document diverging trends for several geographic definitions of local markets....

We study the cross-sectional dispersion of prices paid by EMU importers for French products. We document a significant level of price dispersion both within product categories across exporters, and within exporters across buyers. This latter source of price discrepancies, sellers' price...

We study the cross-sectional dispersion of prices paid by EMU importers for French products. We document a significant level of price dispersion both within product categories across exporters, and within exporters across buyers. This latter source of price discrepancies, sellers' price...

Einführung zum Gedanken des Buches -- Quantität kreuzt sich mit Qualität -- Input, Output, Outcome, Impact -- Betriebliche Kosten und Leistungen -- Der Ansatz externer Nutzen und Kosten.-Emissionen und Immissionen: Das Kausalitätsproblem -- Nutzen und Schaden: Das Indikationsproblem --...

Import tariffs tend to be higher for final goods than for inputs, a phenomenon commonly referred to as tariff escalation. Yet neoclassical trade theory - and modern Ricardian trade models, in particular - predict that welfare-maximizing tariffs are uniform across sectors. We show that tariff...