Research Impact

September 2023
How Can Discount Brands Stay Discounted?
Greater demand can drive up private-label prices faster than national-brand prices, reducing the key benefit of affordability.

June 2023
Scandals Reveal How Much Consumers Really Care about ESG
In an analysis of almost 150 million purchases made by American households researchers find that consumers—particularly younger ones—care about ESG.

Financial Data Privacy Could Help Fight Poverty
Removing key information such as a past bankruptcy from customers’ credit records can make a great deal of difference to individuals’ credit scores and their cost of borrowing.

May 2023
People on the Move Economize—Even When Chasing Higher Incomes
One group of Americans who tighten their belts even though they have every reason to expect that long-term income gains are around the corner.

March 2023
Bargain-Hunting Households Can Beat Inflation
What if moderate levels of inflation actually deliver benefits to families and household budgets?

February 2023
Your Spending Habits Are All in Your Head
Consumers do some complicated mental accounting when allocating money, and researchers are mapping it.

December 2022
Sin Taxes Work Best When They’re Put on a Price Tag
For consumption taxes to work as fully intended, retailers need to display the costs.

Need a Mortgage? Banks Prefer Modern, Standardized Housing
In the United States, rising costs have made it hard for many people to find housing.

October 2022
Why Banning Menthol Cigarettes Locally Doesn’t Work
People kept smoking after a statewide restriction, and tax revenue fell dramatically.

September 2022
Who Won the Twitter Fight Between Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A, and Wendy's?
Companies often use their Twitter handles to banter with each other. Researchers studied the case of the famous 2019 Twitter battle involving the fast-food chains Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy’s.

Why the New Federal GMO Food Labels are Unlikely to Affect Sales
Debate on the subject of GMOs started in the 1970s and took off in the 1990s, when bioengineering technology became more widespread. Activists allege that genetically modified crops could be unsafe for humans and the environment.

August 2022
The COVID Medical-Debt Bomb that Fizzled
Even before COVID-19, Americans already owed $140 billion for delinquent medical bills. When the pandemic hit the United States, that debt burden appeared likely to increase significantly, as hospitalizations spiked, unemployment soared, and millions lost their employer-sponsored health benefits.

June 2022
Why ‘Trading Down’ May Bias Our Picture of Inflation
During economic downturns such as the Great Recession, consumers choose cheaper products, such as generic versus name-brand goods. The reverse is true during times of expansion, when consumers choose more-expensive brands.

May 2022
Do Shoppers Have Too Many Choices? 
US consumer goods are proliferating rapidly, with implications for consumers and companies.

April 2022
Are Women Charged a ‘Pink Tax’ on Personal-Care Products?
For years, lawmakers and consumer advocates have argued that companies charge higher prices for women’s products than nearly identical offerings for men.

March 2022
How Do Americans Shop When a Natural Disaster Approaches?
When threatening weather approaches, grab your bottled water and peanut butter. 

January 2022
Want to Lower Food’s Carbon Footprint? Cut Out Snacks and Drinks
How you can reduce your carbon footprint by not buying that bag of chips. 

December 2021
Social Media Added to the Costs of the Flint Water Crisis
Why sales of bottled water in socially connected areas rose significantly after the states of emergency were declared.

October 2021
‘Natural beauty’ isn’t effortless (or free)
Consumers who say they want naturalness may actually want an artificially constructed aesthetic. 

September 2021
Does mandatory health labeling lead to healthier choices?
A study of breakfast cereals in Chile tests this theory. 

August 2021
Who is right about inflation?
The US Fed and consumers have very different expectations about the future.

July 2021
When recreational marijuana is legalized, cigarette sales rise
How decriminalizing marijuana actually boosts sales for tobacco companies. 

June 2021
Why craft beer’s rise is a warning flag for all sorts of big brands
Research suggests a supply-driven explanation for millennials’ taste for craft beer.

Do consumers invest in paper towels as well as stocks?
Why consumer goods are an appreciable component of overall wealth.

How all those political ads affect commercial advertising
Local advertisers strongly offset by political advertising.

March 2021
Competition and Selection in Credit Markets
In more competitive markets, lenders have lower market shares, and thus lower incentives to monitor borrowers. Thus, when markets are competitive, all lenders face a riskier pool of borrowers, which can lead interest rates to be higher, and consumer welfare to be lower.

What happened when a US state scrapped the ‘tampon tax’
Is removing the tax on tampons and sanitary pads an efficient way to help women?

February 2021
How policy makers could address the food-insecurity epidemic
How can policy address the financial distress that creates headwinds for healthy eating?

January 2021
Super Bowl ads attract investors as well as customers
Ads may spark interest among potential investors

November 2020
The downfall (and possible salvation) of expertise
Can experts win back the public's trust?

June 2020
Can government programs get people to eat more healthily?
A new framework can help the government make more efficient allocations in food policy for low-income households. 

Fox News causes viewers to disregard social distancing
The persuasive effect of Fox News may have discouraged viewers' cooperation with expert recommendations. 

May 2020

Business shutdowns hurt those just above the poverty line
Lower-income households found it hardest to smooth their outlays. 

Will COVID-19 lead to lower prices?
Stingier marketers protected themselves by maintaining higher prices—event in the downturn. 

Does extending jobless benefits help in a recession?
Some elements of the CARES Act will have the desired effect of bolstering consumer spending, the main driver of the US economy. 

When credit dries up, so does innovation
Credit shocks lead to lower investment in product development and innovation, which can stunt both a company's near-term performance and future growth potential. 

Consumers’ three-dimensional chess game in a recession
The combined effects of consumers changing how and where they shop in a shrinking economy have been poorly understood. 

As house prices fall, so will retail prices
Falling prices are likely to compound the effects of soaring unemployment and plunging business activity. 

Producers may contribute to the economic contagion from COVID-19
Economic shocks in one county hurt demand in that same county—but also changed what companies sold elsewhere. 

Why low-income families miss out on bulk buying
Geography, store location, liquidity, and storage capacity affect purchasing decisions. 

March 2020
What Determines Consumer Financial Distress? Place- and Person-Based Factors

April 2020
How retailers inadvertently contribute to hoarding
Retailers' delay in increasing prices in response to demand spike may actually contribute to hoarding. 

October 2019
Demand for niche products is growing
Marketers will have to cater to increasingly narrow tastes.

June 2019
Why banning plastic bags doesn’t work as intended
Benefits of bag regulations are mitigated by changes in consumer behavior.

June 2019
Why the power of TV advertising has been overstated
Television advertising may be considerably less effective than published studies suggest.

April 2019
Credit Supply and Housing Speculation
The surge in private label mortgage securitization in 2003 fueled a large expansion in mortgage credit supply by lenders financed with non-core deposits.

Battle of the coupons: How retailers and manufacturers compete
Different types of products call for different strategies in pricing and discount levels.

March 2019
Financing the Gig Economy
The gig economy is uniquely sensitive to household borrowing constraints on the extensive margin: When finance is unavailable to low-income households, these gains evaporate.

February 2019
How do Americans repay their debt? The balance-matching heuristic
By studying credit card repayments using linked data on multiple cards from the United Kingdom, the authors showed that individuals did not allocate payments to the higher interest rate card, which would minimize the cost of borrowing, but instead made repayments according to a balance-matching heuristic under which the share of repayments on each card is matched to the share of balances on each card.

July 2018
The best way to price your single-serve coffee
Tied goods have generated high margins over time, but competition is changing that.

June 2018
When the government writes checks, consumers spend more
During the Great Recession, every $1 in stimulus led to 18 cents in additional local consumer spending.

June 2018
How to improve retailers’ decisions on what to sell
How retailers resolve the what-to-sell conundrum depends on whether price, convenience, or choice of brands matters most to a store’s specific clientele.

April 2018
How drug ads can help patients get access to treatment
Research suggests that marketing antidepressants to consumers has had some benefits, but hasn’t raised prices.

March 2018
E-cigarettes might (eventually) help smokers quit
E-cigarette use increases the probability that a smoker will try to kick the habit.

February 2018
Higher income, healthier groceries
Reexamining the conventional wisdom on food deserts

January 2018
The conventional wisdom on food deserts may be all wrong
Even when families have access to healthier foods, they don’t necessarily buy them.

December 2017
Do people tell economists the truth?
People aren’t necessarily accurate when they recount how they spend their money.

April 2017
Brand names are losing market share, regardless of rising incomes
Household income may have a smaller impact on the success of private-label brands than previously believed.

June 2015
Welcome to Nerdopolis
Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city, may be, for many, a perfect place to live.

November 2015
Video:  What happens when brands lie?

December 2013
The secrets of shopping
Around the world, billions of sales transactions every month, down to a can of Coca-Cola from a local store, are recorded in some way by Nielsen, the measurement and information firm that has been gathering data from retailers and consumers for 90 years.

December 2006
The geography of brands
New insights into the local performance of nationally distributed brands

June 2002
Why responsiveness to retail promotions varies across retailers
New research looks beyond price cuts.