Evaluating the Unilateral Price and Variety Effects of Horizontal Mergers

Industrial Organization,

Pricing Power by Supermarket Retailers: A Ghost in the Machine?

Agribusiness, L13, L66, Q13,

State-dependent processing of Dentate Gyrus granule cell activity <i>in-vivo</i>

The ability to form dissimilar neural activity patterns from similar sensory driven inputs is a phenomenon found in all vertebrates, called pattern separation. In mammals, pattern separation is closely related to a subregion of the hippocampus, namely the dentate gyrus. The dentate gyrus is an important relay conveying sensory information from the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampus proper and is characterized by a large number of rarely active granule cells that generate a very sparse neural code. While the coding features of granule cells during locomotion have been the subject of several studies, the dentate gyrus also shows activity patterns during immobility and sleep. However, the cellular composition of these patterns and their role in behavior remain elusive. In this thesis we used dual color two photon-Ca2+-imaging in mice to visualize the activity of perforant path input fibers as well as the activity of individual dentate granule cells. We developed a novel approach of head fixation and cranial window design in order to gain visual access to the dentate gyrus. This enabled the recording of neural activity in head fixed mice running on a linear track. Using this approach we found sparse synchronized activity patterns that we termed network events. These network events emerged exclusively during immobility and were associated with distinct activations of the perforant path input. Interestingly, network events incorporate place and speed cells and their features are sensitive to changes in the environment. To compare the population coding during locomotion ant network activity we utilized principal component analysis in different behavioral states. Using this approach we could show that locomotion related population patterns are recapitulated during network events in immobile animals

Obesity and Hyperbolic Discounting: An Experimental Analysis

Behavioral economists maintain that addictions such as alcoholism, smoking and over-eating represent examples of present-bias in decision making that is fundamentally irrational. In this article, we develop a model of present bias and apparently hyperbolic discounting that is fully consistent with rational behavior. We construct an experiment to test our hypothesis and to determine whether discount rates differ for individuals who engage in behaviors that could endanger their health. Our results show that discount functions are quasi-hyperbolic in shape, and that obesity and drinking are positively related to the discount rate. Anti-obesity policy, therefore, would be best directed to informing individuals as to the long-term implications of short-term gratification, rather than taxing foods directly.addiction, discounting, experiments, hyperbolic, obesity, time-inconsistency., Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, C91, D12, D91, I18.,

OBESITY AND HYPERBOLIC DISCOUNTING: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Behavioral economists maintain that addictions such as alcoholism, smoking and over-eating represent examples of present-bias in decision making that is fundamentally irrational. In this article, we develop a model of present bias and apparently hyperbolic discounting that is fully consistent with rational behavior. We construct an experiment to test our hypothesis and to determine whether discount rates differ for individuals who engage in behaviors that could endanger their health. Our results show that discount functions are quasi-hyperbolic in shape, and that obesity and drinking are positively related to the discount rate. Anti-obesity policy, therefore, would be best directed to informing individuals as to the long-term implications of short-term gratification, rather than taxing foods directly.addiction, discounting, experiments, hyperbolic, obesity, time-inconsistency, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, C91, D12, D91, I18,

Commodity Price Pass-Through in Differentiated Retail Food Markets

Prices for nearly all basic commodity rose at unprecedented rates throughout early 2008, only to fall nearly as fast as financial markets and global economies began to collapse. Rising food prices in 2008 led to concerns that commodity price spikes would lead to more general food inflation, but by early 2009 interest focused more on the seeming inability of food prices to fall back down with commodity prices. This study provides an empirical investigation into the pass-through of commodity prices to retail prices for two different types of food products: potatoes and fluid milk. The results show that pass-through depends on the nature of the food in question, but is generally consistent with theoretical models of pricing by sellers of multiple, differentiated products. In particular, pass-through rates tend to be lower for processed (differentiated) products during periods of falling input prices than when input prices are rising. For less processed products, pass-through tends to be higher during regimes of both rising and falling input prices. Our results show that pass-through depends on the degree of pricing power possessed by all channel members and, more generally, suggest a nuanced approach to understanding retail food price inflation.commodity prices, conduct, industrial organization, inflation, market power, nested logit, pass-through, random parameters model, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Industrial Organization, C35, D12, D43, L13, L41, Q13,