We argue that there exists a problem of adverse selection in the provision of advertising which makes it impossible to establish direct markets for it. The media are regarded as intermediaries that can channel advertising and allocate it efficiently by screening consumers. This role of media may result in excessive quality and prices of media products. These distortions will be more severe if c...

We use microdata collected at the border and store to characterize price impact of recent US trade policy on importers, exporters, consumers. At border, import tariff pass-through is much higher than exchange rate pass-through. Chinese exporters did not lower their dollar prices by much, despite appreciation dollar. By contrast, significantly lowered affected foreign retaliatory tariffs. In sto...

A central question in the analysis of fuel economy policy is whether consumers are myopic with regards to future costs. We provide first evidence on consumer valuation from a natural experiment that provides exogenous variation ratings. examine short-run equilibrium effects restatement ratings affected 1.6 million vehicles. Using implied changes willingness pay, we find act myopically: indiffer...

I survey a number of stylized facts pertaining to the dynamics of firm entry, growth, and exit in competitive industries. I focus particularly on data for Portugal, although I also consider, for comparison purposes, data from other countries. I then present a series of theoretical models that attempt to explain the stylized facts and evaluate the welfare impact of market distortions. Finally, I...

Sutton (1998) has recently proposed a theoretical lower bound to firm size inequality when a market is made of several independent submarkets. His results are valid asymptotically, as the number of submarkets becomes arbitrarily large. We show that, in small samples, his results can be interpreted as a positive relationship between an index of firm size inequality and the number of submarkets. ...

We derive a measure of firm speed of price adjustment that is directly inversely related to market power and compare this to the measure derived by Martin (1993). However, both measures are incorrect when firms have non-zero price conjectural variations and treat competing price levels as exogenous. This is because Taylor series expansions of the demand function implicitly assume that firms inf...

This paper studies a model of product variety with flexible manufacturers when, contrary to prior work, atomistic entry occurs prior to horizontal integration. In this model, more lax antitrust laws that allow for fewer and more concentrated merged firms lead to a greater extent of excess entry. Optimal policy permits no horizontal mergers when demand is perfectly inelastic, but may permit some...

We model the behavior of Nasdaq momentum traders, also known as SOES bandits. We show, all things being equal, that the profitability of SOES bandits decreases in the bid-ask spread, but increases in the effective tick size. The patterns we observe in the data provide support for the model. We then discuss the plausibility of odd-eighth tick avoidance by market makers as a defense against SOES ...

We provide a framework and evidence to confront two contradictory yet common assertions: (1) new technology such as the Internet favors businesses in urban areas and (2) the Internet reduces the importance of distance for economic activity. Controlling for other factors, we show that participation in the Internet is more likely in rural areas than in urban areas. This is particularly true for t...

Psychological studies find that video game play is associated with markers for violent and antisocial attitudes. It is plausible that these markers indicate either whetted or sated preferences for antisocial behavior. I investigate whether a proxy for video gaming is associated with the prevalence of various crimes and find evidence that gaming is associated with significant declines in crime a...