Quality, quantity, spending and prices

Prices don't drive regional Medicare spending variations.

Per capita Medicare spending is more than twice as high in New York City and Miami than in places like Salem, Oregon. How much of these differences can be explained by Medicare's paying more to compensate for the higher cost of goods and services in such areas? To answer this question, we analyzed Medicare spending after adjusting for local price differences in 306 Hospital Referral Regions. Th...

Quality and Quantity Competition

Between Quality and Quantity:

Rockefeller Archive Center Research Reports Online is a periodic publication of the Rockefeller Archive Center, a division of The Rockefeller University. Edited by Ken Rose and Erwin Levold under the general direction of the Center's director, Darwin H. Stapleton, Research Reports Online is intended to foster the network of scholarship in the history of philanthropy and to highlight the diverse...

Durable Goods and Consumption Durable Spending, Relative Prices and Consumption

Real annual consumption growth has averaged about 3.7% between 1998 Q1 and 2003 Q3—well above real average annual GDP growth of about 2.6% during that period. (2) Chart 1 shows that the buoyancy of consumer spending can be entirely accounted for by strong growth in durable and semi-durable goods expenditure (henceforth referred to as 'durable spending' unless otherwise specified). Since 1998 Q1...

Advertising Spending and Perceived Quality

In this paper we examine the relationship between advertising spending and perceived product quality. The questions we ask are: Does a product's advertising spending in ̄uence consumers' perceptions of its quality? If so, does the effect remain even after accounting for objective quality, price and market share? Does knowledge about objective quality, from Consumer Reports or usage experience, a...