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Author: José Luis Moraga-González Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
We propose a tractable method for estimation of a simultaneous search model for differentiated products that allows for observed and unobserved heterogeneity in both preferences and search costs. We show that for type I extreme value distributed search costs, expressions for search and purchase probabilities can be obtained in closed form. We show that our search model belongs to the generalized extreme value (GEV) class, which implies that it has a full information discrete-choice equivalent, and hence search data are necessary to distinguish between the search model and the equivalent full information model. We allow for price endogeneity when estimating the model and show how to obtain parameter estimates using a combination of aggregate market share data and individual level data on search and purchases. To deal with the dimensionality problem that typically arises in search models due to a large number of consideration sets we propose a novel Monte Carlo estimator for the search and purchase probabilities. Monte Carlo experiments highlight the importance of allowing for sufficient consumer heterogeneity when doing policy counterfactuals and show that our Monte Carlo estimator is accurate and computationally fast. Finally, a behavioral assumption on how consumers search provides a micro-foundation for consideration probabilities widely used in the literature.
Author: José Luis Moraga-González Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
We propose a tractable method for estimation of a simultaneous search model for differentiated products that allows for observed and unobserved heterogeneity in both preferences and search costs. We show that for type I extreme value distributed search costs, expressions for search and purchase probabilities can be obtained in closed form. We show that our search model belongs to the generalized extreme value (GEV) class, which implies that it has a full information discrete-choice equivalent, and hence search data are necessary to distinguish between the search model and the equivalent full information model. We allow for price endogeneity when estimating the model and show how to obtain parameter estimates using a combination of aggregate market share data and individual level data on search and purchases. To deal with the dimensionality problem that typically arises in search models due to a large number of consideration sets we propose a novel Monte Carlo estimator for the search and purchase probabilities. Monte Carlo experiments highlight the importance of allowing for sufficient consumer heterogeneity when doing policy counterfactuals and show that our Monte Carlo estimator is accurate and computationally fast. Finally, a behavioral assumption on how consumers search provides a micro-foundation for consideration probabilities widely used in the literature.
Author: José L. Moraga González Publisher: ISBN: Category : Consumer behavior Languages : en Pages : 51
Book Description
This paper extends the literature on simultaneous search by allowing for differentiated products and consumer search cost heterogeneity. In a duopolistic market, consumers with sufficiently low search costs choose to inspect the products of the two firms and purchase, if any, the most suitable; consumers with higher search costs choose to examine just one of the products; consumers with prohibitively high search costs do not check any of the products and drop out of the market altogether. For arbitrary search cost distributions, when match values are assumed to be uniformly distributed, a symmetric price equilibrium always exists. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition on the search cost distribution under which an increase in the costs of search of all consumers may result in a lower, equal or higher equilibrium price. The effects of prominence on equilibrium prices are also studied. The prominent firm charges a higher price than the non-prominent firm and both their prices are below the symmetric equilibrium price. Consequently, with simultaneous search, market prominence increases the surplus of consumers. In an extension, we provide conditions under which the equilibrium of the N-firm model exists.
Author: Aren Megerdichian Publisher: ISBN: 9781124126838 Category : Breakfast cereals Languages : en Pages : 370
Book Description
This dissertation contains four essays at the intersection of econometrics and industrial organization. In all my chapters, I rely on a detailed set of supermarket scanner data on ready-to-eat cereals. In Chapter 1, I examine identification of price effects for differentiated product markets by relying on a conditional form of exogeneity that is an alternative framework to standard instrumental variables. I simulate price changes in the cereal industry arising from potential mergers between firms, one of which took place in 2008. In Chapter 2, I continue to employ conditional exogeneity to identify the effect of market price on demand for differentiated products. The analysis here departs from past studies of demand in several ways, including relaxing the prevalent assumption that observed product characteristics are exogenous. Estimates of implied price-cost margins based on the conditional exogeneity framework are far more reasonable and stable compared to estimates based on standard instrumental variables procedures. In Chapter 3, we (coauthored with Xun Lu) relax the omnipresent assumption that indirect utility takes a linear-separable parametric form in standard logit models of demand. We rely on conditional independence to structurally identify and nonparametrically estimate the average marginal effect of market price on consumer demand. We find that the effect of price on demand is monotonically increasing in price, resulting in high-priced goods having less elastic own price elasticities, and thus higher implied price-cost margins, which addresses a well-known concern in empirical industrial organization. In Chapter 4, I examine a firm's decision to raise price overtly (by increasing the dollar amount of a good) versus a hidden price change (by decreasing the contents in a good's package). I conduct a comprehensive set of empirical analyses in order to assess the impact of hidden price increases on expenditure share and profitability. During July 2007, General Mills decreased the cereal content for 20 out of 23 of their products in my sample of scanner data. A key finding is that consumers tend to notice hidden price changes on smaller-sized boxes of cereal, leading them to substitute to larger-sized boxes of cereal.
Author: Giovanni Compiani Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 70
Book Description
I develop and apply a nonparametric approach to estimate demand in differentiated products markets. Estimating demand flexibly is key to addressing many questions in economics that hinge on the shape - and notably the curvature - of market demand functions. My approach applies to standard discrete choice settings, but accommodates a broader range of consumer behaviors and preferences, including complementarities across goods, consumer inattention, and consumer loss aversion. Further, no distributional assumptions are made on the unobservables and only limited functional form restrictions are imposed. Using California grocery store data, I apply my approach to perform two counterfactual exercises: quantifying the pass-through of a tax, and assessing how much the multi-product nature of sellers contributes to markups. In both cases, I find that estimating demand flexibly has a significant impact on the results relative to a standard random coefficients discrete choice model, and I highlight how the outcomes relate to the estimated shape of the demand functions.
Author: Sergei Koulayev Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 23
Book Description
When consumers search for differentiated products, a given search decision can be explained either by low search cost or by low tastes for the set of products already found. We propose an identification strategy that allows to estimate the search cost distribution in the presence of unobserved tastes. The required data takes the form of conditional search decisions: observations of search actions combined with previously observed product displays. We develop an application using clickstream data from a hotel search platform. Estimates of price elasticity of demand in the search model differ from those in the static model, reflecting the bias due to endogeneity of search-generated choice sets.
Author: Simon P. Anderson Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 9780262011280 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 454
Book Description
"The discrete choice approach provides an ideal framework for describing the demands for differentiated products and can be used for studying most product differentiation models in the literature. By introducing extra dimensions of product heterogeneity, the framework also provides richer models of firm location and product selection."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Patrick Bajari Publisher: ISBN: Category : Consumers' preferences Languages : en Pages : 80
Book Description
We study the identification and estimation of preferences in hedonic discrete choice models of demand for differentiated products. In the hedonic discrete choice model, products are represented as a finite dimensional bundle of characteristics, and consumers maximize utility subject to a budget constraint. Our hedonic model also incorporates product characteristics that are observed by consumers but not by the economist. We demonstrate that, unlike the case where all product characteristics are observed, it is not in general possible to uniquely recover consumer preferences from data on a consumer's choices. However, we provide several sets of assumptions under which preferences can be recovered uniquely, that we think may be satisfied in many applications. Our identification and estimation strategy is a two stage approach in the spirit of Rosen (1974). In the first stage, we show under some weak conditions that price data can be used to nonparametrically recover the unobserved product characteristics and the hedonic pricing function. In the second stage, we show under some weak conditions that if the product space is continuous and the functional form of utility is known, then there exists an inversion between a consumer's choices and her preference parameters. If the product space is discrete, we propose a Gibbs sampling algorithm to simulate the population distribution of consumers' taste coefficients.
Author: John Beath Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521335522 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 220
Book Description
There are few industries in modern market economies that do not manufacture differentiated products. This book provides a systematic explanation and analysis of the widespread prevalence of this important category of products. The authors concentrate on models in which product selection is endogenous. In the first four chapters they consider models that try to predict the level of product differentiation that would emerge in situations of market equilibrium. These market equilibria with differentiated products are characterised and then compared with social welfare optima. Particular attention is paid to the distinction between horizontal and vertical differentiation as well as to the related issues of product quality and durability. This book brings together the most important theoretical contributions to these topics in a succinct and coherent manner. One of its major strengths is the way in which it carefully sets out the basic intuition behind the formal results. It will be useful to advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in industrial economics and microeconomic theory.
Author: Matthew Shum Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 981310967X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 154
Book Description
Economic Models for Industrial Organization focuses on the specification and estimation of econometric models for research in industrial organization. In recent decades, empirical work in industrial organization has moved towards dynamic and equilibrium models, involving econometric methods which have features distinct from those used in other areas of applied economics. These lecture notes, aimed for a first or second-year PhD course, motivate and explain these econometric methods, starting from simple models and building to models with the complexity observed in typical research papers. The covered topics include discrete-choice demand analysis, models of dynamic behavior and dynamic games, multiple equilibria in entry games and partial identification, and auction models.
Author: José Luis Moraga-González
Author: José Luis Moraga-González
Author: José L. Moraga González
Author: Aren Megerdichian
Author: Giovanni Compiani
Author: Sergei Koulayev
Author: Simon P. Anderson
Author: Patrick Bajari
Author: John Beath
Author: Robert Stanton McMillan
Author: Matthew Shum