Does Consumer Irrationality Trump Consumer Sovereignty?

Does Consumer Irrationality Trump Consumer Sovereignty?

Sustainable Consumption and Consumer Sovereignty

There is a growing consensus in Ecological Economics that consumer preferences are neither fixed nor given, but rather endogenously determined by socio-economic and institutional factors. Hence, policy may promote “green” preferences directly. Yet any intervention in processes of preference formation seems to conflict with widely held liberal intuitions, imperfectly represented by the principle...

Ethical Consumer Movement: Consumer Ethical Concerns and Behaviors

Background: Consumer ethical behavior has attracted much attention in recent years. However, most empirical research has focused on specific instances of ethical consumer behavior and ignored other ethical behaviors. This means a complete lack of understanding of the lifestyles of ethical consumers. In this article, while referring to the formation of ethical consumption, a full range of ethica...

Does generic entry always increase consumer welfare?

This article examines how the nature of competition between brands in a therapeutic category changes after generic entry and provide a framework for analyzing the effect of generic entry on consumer welfare that takes into account the generic free riding problem. It demonstrates that changes in competition along dimensions other than retail price--such as competition in research and development...

Does Consumer Search Matter in Retail Trade?

This study investigates the relationship between consumer search costs, inflation, and firm markups in retail trade by employing actual measures of consumer search cost gathered by way of an online consumer survey. Consistent with theory, results indicate that markups can be higher if consumer search costs are higher. Results from panel data also show that increases in inflation lead to increas...