Mario Samano

Entry and pricing on Broadway.

ABSTRACT This article investigates the pricing decisions of Broadway shows. We find evidence that incumbent Broadway shows lower prices several weeks prior to the opening of a new show. In addition, prices are lower when the threat of competition, due to more entrants, is larger. A decomposition suggests that prices are more important than quantities for changes in revenue prior to entry and that this pattern reverses after entry occurs.

To Rebate or Not to Rebate: Fuel Economy Standards vs. Feebates

We compare the welfare effects in equilibrium of two environmental regulations that aim at increasing the new cars fleet’s average fuel efficiency: the fuel economy standards and the feebate policies. Maintaining the same environmental benefit and tax revenue, we simulate the implementation of each policy in France and the United States. Standard-type policies have larger negative welfare effects, up to 3.2 times those from the feebate. Effects on manufacturers are heterogeneous: some are better of under the standard regulation. The addition of a market to trade levels of fuel efficiency dominates the simple standard regulation but not always the feebate. We also consider the attribute-based standard, technological improvements, and the equivalence with fuel taxes as extensions.

Conditional Average Treatment Effects and Decision Making

This paper develops a decision making empirical method to evaluate welfare programs accounting for heterogeneity of impacts. We find outcome predictive distributions for different subgroups of the population and use a characterization of second order stochastic dominance to give a policy recommendation conditional on covariates with minimal requirements on the social planners utility function. Further, we can estimate quantile treatment effects within subgroups of the population. We apply this method to the Connecticuts Jobs First program and find subgroups for which the program did not maximize welfare even though some statistics may suggest the opposite and vice-versa.