Anna
V. Yurko
Working Papers:
1.
“How Does Income Inequality
Affect Market Outcomes in Vertically Differentiated Markets?” Working Paper, March 2010 (original draft from
December 2006).
Abstract:
The distribution of consumer incomes is a key factor
in determining the structure of a vertically differentiated industry when
consumer's willingness to pay depends on his income. This paper computes the
Shaked and Sutton (1982) model for a lognormal distribution of consumer incomes
to investigate the effect of inequality on firms' entry, product quality, and
pricing decisions. The main findings are >>>>
2.
“From Consumer Incomes to Car Ages: How
the Distribution of Income Affects the Distribution of Vehicle Vintages” Working Paper, February 2009 (original draft from
March 2008).
Abstract:
This paper studies the relationship between consumer
incomes and ages of the durable goods consumed. At the household level, it presents evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey of a
negative correlation between incomes and ages of the vehicles owned. At the
aggregate level, it constructs a dynamic, heterogeneous
agents, discrete choice model, to study the relationship between the
distribution of consumer incomes and the distribution of vehicle vintages. >>>>
3. “The Value of Commitment: Marriage Choice in the Presence
of Costly Divorce”, October 2008
(basic model and
results in pdf)
(proposal:
introduction and literature review)
4. “Exploring Innovation with Market Concentration
and Consumer Income in Dynamic Markets”, joint with Mei Lin and
Andrew Whinston (
Abstract:
Our study examines the disruptive innovations
that arrive from outside of the industry through computational analyses that
connect innovation rate to market concentration and consumer income in a
dynamic setting. The findings show that a market of fewer incumbents (higher
concentration) generates less innovations due to the reduced innovation premium
and shortened length of incumbency; however, the equilibrium innovation rate
increases in the market share of the top firm, due to enhanced innovation
premium. We also find that more high-income consumers stimulate innovation.
Lastly, higher consumer welfare and aggregate welfare are found in a more
innovative market in the long term.