nep-mkt New Economics Papers
on Marketing
Issue of 2012‒11‒17
seven papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon
  1. Corporate Social Responsibility and the Economics of Consumer Social Responsibility By Fabrice Etilé; Sabrina Teyssier
  2. An Empirical Investigation of the Determinants of Asymmetric Pricing By Marc Remer
  3. Competition and Price Discrimination in the Parking Garage Industry By Haizhen Lin; Yijia Wang
  4. Estimating consumer lock-in effects from firm-level data By Gábor Kézdi; Gergely Csorba
  5. Price as a signal of product quality: Some experimental evidence By Giovanni Mastrobuoni; Franco Peracchi; Aleksey Tetenov
  6. The Danish tax on saturated fat. Short run effects on consumption and consumer prices of fats By Jørgen Dejgård Jensen; Sinne Smed
  7. Living Up to Expectations: Corporate Reputation and Sustainable Competitive Advantage By Luis Cabral
  1. By: Fabrice Etilé (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Sabrina Teyssier (ALISS - Alimentation et sciences sociales - INRA : UR1303)
    Abstract: The promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is likely to depend on consumers' purchase behaviors. While many consumers like the idea of social responsibility, the responsible consumption remains at a low level. This survey analyses two main barriers to responsible consumption: the willingness-to-pay for it, which relates to consumer social preferences; and the information asymmetry between companies and consumers. The economic literature shows that consumer social preferences are related to altruistic, self-image and social image concerns. Only consumers with strong social preferences and a low marginal utility of income (a high income) are likely to purchase CSR products. Moreover, purchase decisions crucially depend on the existence of labels, which truthfully identify the CSR products. Public policies may promote consumer social responsibility through education programs, enhancement of self- and social-image concerns, and careful label regulation.
    Keywords: corporate social responsibility, consumer, social preferences, asymmetric information, labels.
    Date: 2012–11–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00749355&r=mkt
  2. By: Marc Remer (Economic Analysis Group, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice)
    Abstract: This article empirically investigates the cause of asymmetric pricing: retail prices responding faster to cost increases than decreases. Using daily price data for over 11,000 retail gasoline stations, I nd that prices fall more slowly than they rise as a consequence of rms extracting informational rents from consumers with positive search costs. Premium gasoline prices are shown to fall more slowly than regular fuel prices but rise at the same pace, and this pricing pattern supports theories based upon competition with consumer search. Further testing also rejects focal price collusion as an important determinant of asymmetric pricing.
    Date: 2012–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:doj:eagpap:201210&r=mkt
  3. By: Haizhen Lin (Department of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University Kelley School of Business); Yijia Wang (NERA Economic Consulting)
    Abstract: We study the relationship between competition and price discrimination through an empirical examination of hourly price schedules in the parking garage industry. We find that the degree of price schedule curvature decreases with competition, implying a greater proportionate drop in low-end prices than in high-end prices when competition intensifies. We provide an explanation for our findings using differences in search behaviors between short- and long-term customers.
    Keywords: competition, price curvature, price discrimination, consumer search, parking garage industry
    JEL: L0 L11 L12
    Date: 2012–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iuk:wpaper:2012-07&r=mkt
  4. By: Gábor Kézdi; Gergely Csorba
    Abstract: This paper proposes a practical method for estimating consumer lock-in effects from firm-level data. The method compares the behavior of already contracted consumers to the behavior of new consumers, the latter serving as a counterfactual to the former. In panel regressions on firms' incoming and quitting consumers, we look at the differential response to price changes and identify the lock-in effect from the difference between the two. We discuss the potential econometric issues and measurement problems and offer solutions to them. We illustrate our method by analyzing the market for personal loans in Hungary and find strong lock-in effects.
    Date: 2012–10–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ceu:econwp:2012_17&r=mkt
  5. By: Giovanni Mastrobuoni (Collegio Carlo Alberto and CeRP); Franco Peracchi (Tor Vergata University and EIEF); Aleksey Tetenov (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
    Abstract: We separate the budgetary and non-budgetary effects of price on demand using choice data from wine tasting experiments in which consumers tasted wines of different quality accompanied by fictitious price information. The non-budgetary effect is present and nonlinear: it is strongly positive between 3 and 5 euro, and undetectable between 5 and 8 euro. We find a similar nonlinear price-quality relationship in a large sample of wine ratings from the same price segment, supporting the hypothesis that consumer behavior in the experiment is consistent with rationally using prices as signals of quality. Price signals also have greater importance for inexperienced (young) consumers.
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eie:wpaper:1214&r=mkt
  6. By: Jørgen Dejgård Jensen (Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Sinne Smed (Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen)
    Abstract: Denmark introduced a new tax on saturated fat in food products with effect from October 2011. The objective of this paper is to make an effect assessment of this tax for some of the product categories most significantly affected by the new tax, namely fats such as butter, butter-blends, margarine and oils. This assessment was done by conducting an econometric analysis on weekly food purchase data from a large household panel dataset (GfK ConsumerTracking Scandinavia), spanning the period from January 2009 until December 2011.The econometric analysis suggest that the introduction of the tax on saturated fat in food products has had some effects on the market for the considered products, in that the level of consumption of fats dropped by 10 – 20%. Furthermore, the analysis points at shifts in demand from high-price supermarkets towards low-price discount stores – a shift that seems to have been utilized by discount chains to raise the prices of butter and margarine by more than the pure tax increase. Due to the relatively short data period with the tax being active, interpretation of these findings from a long-run perspective should be done with considerable care. It is thus recommended to repeat – and broaden – the analysis at a later stage, when data are available for a longer period after the introduction of the fat tax.
    Keywords: fat tax, demand response, price response, retail sales
    Date: 2012–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:wpaper:2012_14&r=mkt
  7. By: Luis Cabral
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ste:nystbu:12-19&r=mkt
This nep-mkt issue is ©2012 by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.
This page is being maintained by Thomas Krichel. It was last updated on 2023‒07‒08 at 13:39.