Improving technologies create a “buy or wait?” dilemma. In this paper, we consider repeat purchases when the consumer faces an infinite stream of new technologies. We develop a probabilistic model and focus on the role of “more variability” on the process of technological innovation. Similar to real options models, we find that variability in the technological process increases value for the co...

Over the past decade, urban residents have experienced a consumer revolution at multiple levels. In terms of material standard of living, sustained economic growth has dramatically increased spending on discretionary consumer purchases and urbanites have enthusiastically consumed globally branded foodstuffs, pop-music videos and fashion. At the same time, however, income distribution has become...

This paper empirically explores the degree to which consumers perceive a manufacturer’s warranty as a signal of unobservable product quality. Data on household purchases of new automobiles from the Consumer Expenditure Survey are used to estimate both conditional and mixed logit models of consumer demand, with the indirect utility specification extended to incorporate the impact of manufacturer...

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the impact that credible food safety information has on consumer purchasing of products from the offspring of clones. Also explored is the relationship between consumer beliefs and attitudes about using cloning as a technology with regard to food purchases. Results from a sample of 145 individuals found that credible information about food saf...

This paper assesses the choice of policy instruments for crisis management and prevention and whether Central Banks should target consumer and asset prices to maintain financial stability. Our results suggest that the interest rate is preferable to the money supply instrument because in times of financial distress the Central Bank automatically satisfies the increased demand for money, and that...

Recommendation agents (RAs) have been used by many Internet businesses such as Amazon and Netflix. However, few authors have studied how consumer behavior is affected by those that make suggestions to online consumers based on their recent shopping behavior. Fewer still have examined the role that RAs play in influencing impulse purchasing decisions online. Our study developed a theoretical mod...

We use a 575,000-subject, 28-day experiment to investigate monetary policy in a virtual setting. The experiment tests the effect of virtual currency endowments on player retention and virtual currency demand. An increase in endowments of a virtual currency should lower the demand for the currency in the short run. However, in the long run, we would expect money demand to rise in response to inf...

People frequently spend money on others and research shows that such prosocial spending often promotes the benefactor’s happiness, even sometimes when reflecting upon past purchases. But whom what do people generally their money? And features of memories are associated with greater post-recall happiness? In a pre-registered examination, human coders text analysis software coded over 2,500 recol...

Can the price level be determined by a requirement that taxes should paid in money? We study this question dynamic endowment economy where households have to pay money tax of fixed real value and enters through government expenditures open market operations. When only consist purchases goods, is bounded from above, but not uniquely determined. A unique can obtained if also has access transfers,...

Extended service contracts have been the major profit generator for many consumer electronics retailers as they contribute to half of the retailers' profit. My dissertation studies how consumers make purchase decisions of extended service contracts and how the ESC purchase decisions are related to the product purchase decisions. Essay 1: " Why Do Consumers Buy Extended Service Contracts? " The ...