How do government transfer payments affect retail prices and welfare? Evidence from SNAP

How Do House Prices Affect Consumption? Evidence from Micro Data

Housing is a major component of wealth. Since house prices fluctuate considerably over time, it is important to understand how these fluctuations affect households’ consumption decisions. Rising house prices may stimulate consumption by increasing households’ perceived wealth, or by relaxing borrowing constraints. This paper investigates the response of household consumption to house prices usi...

How do minimum cigarette price laws affect cigarette prices at the retail level?

OBJECTIVES Half of US states have minimum cigarette price laws that were originally passed to protect small independent retailers from unfair price competition with larger retailers. These laws prohibit cigarettes from being sold below a minimum price that is set by a formula. Many of these laws allow cigarette company promotional incentives offered to retailers, such as buydowns and master-typ...

Search and Equilibrium Prices: Theory and Evidence from Retail Diesel

We examine the relation between consumer search and equilibrium prices when collusion in endogenously determined. We develop a theoretical model and show that average price is a U-shaped function of the measure of searchers: prices are highest when there are no searchers (local monopoly power) or when there are many searchers (and sellers opt to collude). We test this prediction with diesel ret...

Do Daily Retail Gasoline Prices adjust Asymmetrically?

How Do Government Mortgage Programs Affect Low-Income Neighborhoods

Acknowledgements I would first and foremost like to thank my thesis advisor, Daniel Fetter. This thesis would not be possible without him. I am very grateful for all the support, expertise, and patience he has offered me from the beginning. With his guidance I gained a deeper understanding of not only my topic but economics in general. I would also like to thank Kristin Butcher for her unending...