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on Marketing |
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Issue of 2011‒03‒19
five papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Alexandre De Cornière (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - Ecole des Ponts ParisTech - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris - ENS Paris, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the role of a search engine as an intermediary between firms and consumers. Search engines enable firms to target consumers who have revealed some specific needs through their query. In a framework with horizontal product differentiation, imperfect product information and in which consumers incur search costs, I show that introducing a "neutral" targeted advertising mechanism reduces social inefficiencies and tends to reduce the equilibrium price. Moreover, the accuracy of the mechanism has a non monotonic effect on the price of the good: the price is lowest when the accuracy is intermediate. |
| Keywords: | search-engine ; targeted advertising ; consumer search, product differentiation |
| Date: | 2011–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00575074&r=mkt |
| By: | Saak, Alexander E. |
| Keywords: | Advertising, experience goods, Learning, monopoly, private information, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1062&r=mkt |
| By: | Francisco Muñoz-Pradas (Departament de Geografia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | One feature of the modern nutrition transition is the growing consumption of animal proteins. The most common approach in the quantitative analysis of this change used to be the study of averages of food consumption. But this kind of analysis seems to be incomplete without the knowledge of the number of consumers. Data about consumers are not usually published in historical statistics. This article introduces a methodological approach for reconstructing consumer populations. This methodology is based on some assumptions about the diffusion process of foodstuffs and the modeling of consumption patterns with a log-normal distribution. This estimating process is illustrated with the specific case of milk consumption in Spain between 1925 and 1981. These results fit quite well with other data and indirect sources available showing that this dietary change was a slow and late process. The reconstruction of consumer population could shed a new light in the study of nutritional transitions. |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:uhewps:2011_06&r=mkt |
| By: | Diallo, Amadou Sekou |
| Abstract: | In most developing countries, historically, the main strategy for improving the food sector has focused on increasing farm-level production. But in recent years, with the emphasis on value chain analysis, there has been much more focus on subsector studies, demand-driven approaches, and improving vertical coordination to assure product quality to final consumption markets. Millet, sorghum, and later rice were the traditional leading three cereal crops produced and consumed in Mali. Maize has trailed them for more than two decades, but from mid 1990s on, it has been produced and consumed in much larger quantities. Given the potentials of maize, developing and better organizing its subsector has the potential to not only increase revenues for maize farmers, but also create profitable opportunities for other actors in the subsector (traders, marketers, processors, industries, and consumers). This paper seeks to provide a description of the changing supply and demand dynamics for maize in Mali, the organization of the marketing channels and players, and the characteristics of the main consumption markets. The main conceptual tools to be used are subsector analysis and the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) approach. The paper will draw on literature reviews, the authorâs personal interviews with value chain participants, and tabular and graphical analysis of production and price data to address the reasons behind the changes in production and demand, how the demand is likely to evolve, how the structure of the subsector might be affected, and what will be the implications for public sector investments and policies. |
| Keywords: | maize, value chain, Mali, cereals, food security, agricultural marketing, livestock feed, industrial organization, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Marketing, L11-Production, Pricing, and Market Structure, Size Distribution of Firms, N57-Africa, Oceania, O17-Formal and Informal Sectors, Shadow Economy, Institutional Arrangements, O33-Technological Change: Choices and Consequences, Diffusion Processes, Q12-Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets, Q13-Agricultural Markets and Marketing, Cooperatives, Agribusiness, Q18-Agricultural Policy, Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midagr:101316&r=mkt |
| By: | Paul Missios (Department of Economics, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada); Ida Ferrara (DEpartment of Economics, York University, Toronto, Canada) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the role of insurance coverage in explaining the generic competition paradox in a two-stage game involving a single producer of brand-name drugs and n quantity-competing producers of generic drugs. Independently of brand loyalty, which some studies rely upon to explain the paradox, we show that heterogene- ity in insurance coverage may result in higher prices of brand-name drugs following generic entry. With market segmentation based on insurance coverage present in both the pre- and post-entry stages, the paradox can arise when the two types of drugs are highly substitutable and the market is quite pro?table but does not have to arise when the two types of drugs are highly di¤erentiated. However, with market segmentation occuring only after generic entry, the paradox can arise when the two types of drugs are weakly substituables, provided, however, that the industry is not very pro?table. In both cases, that is, when market segmentation is present in the pre-entry stage and when it is not, the paradox becomes more likely to arise as the market expands and/or insurance companies decrease deductables applied on the purchase of generic drugs. |
| Keywords: | brand-name pricing; generic entry; generic competition paradox; health insurance; health economics. |
| JEL: | L11 L13 I12 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rye:wpaper:wp026&r=mkt |