Advertising, Goodwill, and the Veblen Effect: .

International audienceThe increase of demand in price, an exception to the law of demand, is known as the Veblen effect. In this work, we consider a profit maximizing monopoly which by means of advertising impacts the price-demand relationship. We show that advertising and goodwill play an important role in making the Veblen effect more prevalent than expected. By employing optimal control theory we capturethe evolution of the variables over time which may exhibit the Veblen effect where price and demand move in the same direction. Incorporating this dynamics into firms' decisions has a promising impact on long-term profit. Consequently, it may even trigger a slew of studies on product line extension, competition and pricing by allowing firms to control their status

The appeal of doing business in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai

International audienc

Convenience pricing in online retailing: Evidence from Amazon.com

International audienceTo expedite payments, firms use convenience pricing strategies. A price is considered convenient if it can be paid with few coins. Convenient prices are well understood in offline retailing, but not online. This article fills the gap, examining an original panel dataset more than 2.5 million observations of book prices from Amazon.com. We provide empirical evidence supporting two claims. First in a static setup, more convenient prices are more likely to be set. Second in a dynamic setup, more convenient prices are more rigid. Emphasizing the role of convenience, this work sheds new light on price setting in online retailing