This paper analyzes the pricing dynamics of product warranties by developing a three-player hierarchical game model involving a manufacturer, an independent service agent, and a consumer. The model provides a scenario where the manufacturer and the agent form a coalition to coordinate pricing...

This paper studies the impact of truth-telling preferences on aggregate consumer welfare within a priority pricing (PP) mechanism. Traditional models assume individuals always misrepresent private information to maximize payoffs, yet recent evidence suggests there may be an innate preference for...

Firms can increase the demand for their products and consolidate their market power not only by increasing user utility but also by decreasing non-user utility. In this paper, we examine this mechanism by considering the case of smartphones. In particular, Apple has faced criticism for allegedly...

China has become a major player in sovereign lending towards Africa during the past two decades but has recently been faced with increasing defaults. A new African debt crisis is looming. • Differences in the motives of sovereign lending between China and Western creditor countries contribute...

This article oscillates around the intersection of sustainability and digital platforms, which is an increasingly important and complex area of study in which digital platforms can have both a positive and a negative influence. The interaction between sustainability and digital platforms is...

We study how experts influence consumer behavior and welfare by focusing on the Booker Prize. Leveraging the discontinuity created by the attribution of the prize, we show that readers receive the signal sent by the jury of the Booker and are persuaded to buy the awarded book but experience...

China has become a major player in sovereign lending towards Africa during the past two decades but has recently been faced with increasing defaults. A new African debt crisis is looming. • Differences in the motives of sovereign lending between China and Western creditor countries contribute...

Merger control plays a central role in competition policy. When assessing proposed mergers, Competition Authorities should consider its impact on all relevant markets. Large mergers between manufacturers typically impact competition, thus requiring the approval of Competition Authorities....

In the context of a vertically differentiated duopoly model with endogenous quality choice, we analyzes the welfare effect of overlapping ownership when the market is fully covered. The results show that overlapping ownership, while detrimental for consumer surplus, may increase or decrease...

This text was published as Weekend Edition of EU Law Live. It explains what the Consumer Welfare Hypothesis can do for legal scholars, especially (but not only) in the European Union:1 offer two new responses to arguments of this kind: from an economic point of view, this...

We examine the impact of targeted advertising on competition and welfare when advertising directly affects the consumer’s utility, as in Becker and Murphy (1993). We show that as targeted advertising becomes less costly, market concentration and prices increase. Yet consumer welfare also...

(Korean Abstract) 본 연구는 무역 자유화나 글로벌 인플레이션 등 외부 충격으로 인한 국내가격 변화가 품질 다양성 및 소비자 후생에 미치는 영향을 고찰한다. 자유무역협정(FTA) 발효 등으로 인해 무역 자유화가 진전되면 관세...

The household welfare gains from financial inclusion are empirically elusive. This paper establishes that household welfare gains from a financial technology are equal to the area under dynamically compensated demand in a household model with incomplete financial markets, and general technology,...