This article studies the influence of product groupings on consumer preferences. Specifically, it is proposed that when each product in two groups has an equal chance of a gain, consumers prefer to choose from a group that appears more contagious (e.g., products arranged close together, similarly, or symmetrically). However, when each product in two groups has an equal chance of a loss, consume...

I develop a multi-country multi-industry model of trade that features heterogeneous consumers with non-homothetic preferences. I use the model to quantify the measurement errors in the welfare gains estimates caused by the assumption of a representative consumer (ARC). First, I reduce the world level of all trade costs by 15% and find that ARC overestimates (underestimates) the gains of the poo...

The online, direct-to-consumer (DTC) medical marketplace is proliferating more rapidly than regulation is evolving to ensure proper patient safety and public health controls. Along with this growing body of unrestrained medical testing and pharmaceuticals offered DTC online, most types of insulin and insulin administration products may now be purchased without prescriptions or physician guidanc...

BACKGROUND Direct-to-consumer genetic tests (DTC-GT) are easily purchased through the Internet, independent of a physician referral or approval for testing, allowing the retrieval of genetic information outside the clinical context. There is a broad debate about the testing validity, their impact on individuals, and what people know and perceive about them. OBJECTIVE The aim of this review wa...