Does ethical differentiation of products affect market behavior? We examined this issue in triopolistic experimental markets where producers set prices. One producer’s costs were higher than the others. In two treatments, the additional costs were attributed to compliance with ethical guidelines. In the third, no justification was provided. Many consumers reduced their experimental gains by pur...

Recent empirical research in finance has uncovered two families of pervasive regularities: underreaction of stock prices to news such as earnings announcements, and overreaction of stock prices to a series of good or bad news. In this paper, we present a parsimonious model of investor sentiment, or of how investors form beliefs, which is consistent with the empirical findings. The model is base...

We study the role of communication within a cartel. Our analysis is carried out in Stigler’s (1964) model of oligopoly with secret price cuts. This is a repeated game with private monitoring since in the model, firms observe neither the prices nor the sales of their rivals. For a fixed discount factor, we identify conditions under which there are equilibria with "cheap talk" communication that ...

This paper shows that prices respond more to increases than to decreases in Value-Added Taxes (VATs). First, using all VAT reforms from 1996 to 2015 across all European countries we show that prices respond 3 to 4 times more to VAT increases than decreases. Second, using a plausibly exogenous VAT reform, we show that the asymmetry persists over several years. Third, we document several empirica...

We decentralize incentive efficient allocations in large adverse selection economies by introducing a Walrasian market for mechanisms, that is, for menus of contracts. Facing a budget constraint, informed individuals choose lotteries over mechanisms, while firms supply (slots at) mechanisms at given prices. An equilibrium requires that firms cannot favorably change, or cut, prices. We show that...

* University of Belgrade, Faculty of Economics, [email protected] JEL CLASSIFICATION: D44 ABSTRACT: In sequential auctions objects are sold one by one in separate auctions. These sequential auctions might be organised as sequential first-price, second-price, or English auctions. We will derive equilibrium bidding strategies for these auctions. Theoretical models suggest that prices in sequent...

We model the idea that when consumers search for products, they first visit the firms which advertise more, or the firms whose advertising is more salient. Equilibrium prices and advertising efforts are increasing in consumer search costs. By contrast, equilibrium profits are nonmonotonic in search costs so firms are not necessarily better off if search costs rise. In our model, firms are engag...

Donald Trump’s election was a significant surprise. The reaction of company stock prices to the election reflects shifts in investor expectations about economic growth, taxes, and trade policy. High-beta stocks outperformed, presumably due to strengthened growth expectations. Expectations of significant corporate tax cuts boosted high-tax firms, but hurt firms with significant net operating los...

in accordance with the iranian government intention toward two step forward elimination of energy subsidies policy in coming years, we focus in this study on the extent by which the corresponding raising costs will be distributed across the livestock sector and how they affected food security. for this purpose, scenario of increasing energy prices and improving productivity at vertical and hori...