Abstract An influential result in the literature on charitable giving is that matching subsidies dominate rebate raising funds. We investigate whether this extends to “unit donation” schemes, a popular alternative form of soliciting donations. There, donors’ choices are over number units good fund at given unit price, rather than amount money give. Comparing matches and rebates as well simple d...

BACKGROUND Several states have developed prescription-drug discount programs for Medicare beneficiaries. In California, Senate Bill 393, enacted in 1999, requires pharmacies participating in the state Medicaid program (Medi-Cal) to charge customers who present a Medicare card amounts based on Medi-Cal rates. Because Medicare beneficiaries may not be accustomed to presenting their Medicare cards...

In many markets consumers incur search costs and firms choose a long-run pricing strategy that determines how they respond to market conditions. A pricing strategy may involve commitments to take actions that do not optimize short-term revenue given the information the firm learns about demand. For example, as already suggested in the literature, the firm could commit to a single price no matte...

We analyze the structure and pricing of option contracts for an industrial good in the presence of spot trading. We combine the analysis of spot trading and buyers’ disparate private valuations for different suppliers’ products, and jointly endogenize the determination of three major dimensions in contract design: (i) sales contracts versus options contracts; (ii) flat-price versus volume-depen...

Exchange Traded Funds are equity issues of companies whose assets consist entirely of cash and shares of stock approximating particular indexes. These companies resemble closed end funds except for the unique feature that additional shares can be created or redeemed by a number of registered entities. This paper investigates the extent and properties of the resulting premiums and discounts of E...

In this study we investigate the performance of investment trust new issues during their first 750 days of trading. Research on the initial performance of new issues has documented that abnormal returns are obtained during the first day of trading. We compare the performance of investment trust new issues with the performance of size and style-based matching investment trusts taking the multina...

Applying revenue management techniques for the entertainment industries, such as theaters, faces several specific challenges. Many theaters increase their audience and revenues through promotional discounts and pricing strategies based on the quality of the seats. Due to the varying quality of shows, and the high availability of seats, many customers purchase tickets or postpone their purchases...

In the West, where posted prices are norm, it is uncommon to observe consumers receive discounts below price. Nevertheless, we find that when stores asked, a discount granted approximately 40% of time, with median percentage 10%. Discounts more likely be offered by small-scale firms, for higher-priced products, and nonsale items. More generally, differences in price delegation behavior across f...