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DissertationJRossetti_04_20_18.pdf (1.22 MB)

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Product Variety in the U.S. Yogurt Industry

Rossetti, Joseph Anthony
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152407869932886

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Economics.
The products offered in an industry determine the profits of firms and consumer welfare. In this paper, I estimate a model of product entry and exit in the U.S. yogurt industry from 2001-2011 using supermarket scanner data from the IRI Marketing Database. I use a two-step procedure. I first estimate yogurt industry demand and variable costs using the standard framework of Berry et al. (1995). In the second step, I estimate the fixed costs of offering a product. Estimation of the fixed cost is complicated because firms can offer any subset of the potential product lines in the industry, but I only observe in the sample a small number of the possible combinations of products. I apply the pairwise maximum score estimator of Fox (2007), which provides consistent estimates in settings with large choice sets. I use the first stage estimates to compute firms' expected variable profits from offering alternative sets of products and choose the fixed costs parameters to maximize the number of times the model predicts that the firms' observed choices were optimal. In a counterfactual analysis, I find that increases in market concentration do not increase the incentives to offer more unique products than the competitive industry offered and that the increased product variety is not enough to compensate consumers for the increases in prices.
Javier Donna (Advisor)
Jason Blevins (Committee Member)
Bruce Weinberg (Committee Member)
91 p.
Economics
product choice; entry and exit; new products; differentiated consumer goods; market structure; discrete choice

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rossetti, J. A. (2018). Product Variety in the U.S. Yogurt Industry [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152407869932886

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rossetti, Joseph. Product Variety in the U.S. Yogurt Industry. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152407869932886.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rossetti, Joseph. "Product Variety in the U.S. Yogurt Industry." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152407869932886

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu152407869932886
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.