This is an online seminar using Cisco Webex. You will receive the login data with the invitation to the talk. Abstract: The tracking of online user behavior is considered essential for the construction of consumer profiles, which help platforms monetize their services. Prominent examples are advertising in online search or social media, but also online retailing in which matching...
While in January 2012, Denmark increased the long-standing tax on sugary soft drinks, the tax was cut byhalf in July 2013 and then completely repealed in January 2014. In this study, we examine whetherincreases and cuts of the soft drink tax lead to similar over- or under-shifting to prices and to similardemand responses. We use longitudinal scanner data of 1,282 Danish households to estimate within-product ...
“Sin taxes” are high on the political agenda in the global fight against obesity. Ac- cording to theory, they are welfare improving if consumers with low self-control are at least as price responsive as consumers with high self-control, even in the absence of ex- ternalities. In this paper, we investigate if consumers with low and high self-control react differently to sin tax variation. For identification, ...
The Berlin IO Day is a one-day workshop sponsored by the Berlin Centre for Consumer Policies (BCCP) and supported by the Berlin's leading academic institutions, including DIW Berlin, ESMT Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Technische Universität Berlin. The aim is to create an international forum for high quality research in Industrial Organization in the heart of Berlin, one of...
We study a game in which two firms compete in quality to serve a market consisting of consumers with different initial consideration sets. If both firms invest below a certain quality threshold, they only compete for those consumers already aware of their existence. Above this threshold, a firm is visible to all and the highest quality attracts all consumers. In equilibrium, firms do not choose their ...
We conduct a randomized field experiment to study the effects of two financial education interventions offered to small-scale retailers in Uganda. The treatments contrast "active learning" with "traditional lecturing" within standardized lesson-plans. We find that active learning has a positive and economically meaningful impact on savings and investment outcomes, in contrast to insignificant impacts ...
In an urban economy, the distribution of people and real estate prices depends on the location of the central business district of a city. As distance from the city center increases, both prices and population density diminish, for travel costs increase in terms of time and money. As manufacturing gradually leaves the cities, the importance of consumer amenities as attractors of population to the urban ...
A number of studies show that there is a link between social comparison and high levels of household debt. However, the exact mechanisms behind this link are not yet well understood. In this paper, we perform a lab experiment designed to study the eff ects of social image concerns and peer information on consumption choices that can be financed through debt taking. We find that having to announce ...
Wucher ist ein häufiges Phänomen auf den Verbraucherkreditmärkten und betrifft insbesondere Haushalte mit niedrigem Einkommen. Obwohl der Begriff Wucher Bilder eines gierigen Individuums beschwört, das bewusst handelt, um die schwache Verhandlungsposition eines anderen mit irreführenden und sogar betrügerischen Mitteln auszunutzen, betrachten wir ihn als systemisches Problem: als ein Problem der sozialen ...