Browsing by Author "Beresteanu, Arie"

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    Gasoline Prices, Government Support, and the Demand for Hybrid Vehicles in the U.S.
    (2009) Beresteanu, Arie; Li, Shanjun
    the determinants in the demand for hybrid vehicles and examine government programs that aim to promote the adoption of these vehicles. We find that hybrid vehicle sales in 2006 would have been 37 percent lower had gasoline prices stayed at the 1999 levels while the effect of the federal income tax credit program is estimated at 20 percent in 2006. Our results suggest that under the income tax credit program, the cost of reducing gasoline consumption was $75 per barrel in government revenue and that of CO2 emission reduction was $177 per ton. We show that the cost-effectiveness of federal tax programs can be improved by adopting a flat rebate scheme.
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    The dynamics of retail oligopoly
    (2005) Beresteanu, Arie; Ellickson, Paul
    This paper examines competition between supermarket chains using a dynamic model of strategic investment. Employing a unique eleven year panel dataset of store level observations that includes every supermarket operating in the United States, we propose and estimate a fully dynamic model of chain level competition. Using a structural model of dynamic oligopoly where firms compete each period in a static stage game, we estimate the dynamic parameters of the model using the methods proposed in Bajari, Benkard, and Levin (2006). The estimation takes place in two stages. In the first stage, the static parameters governing the outcome of product market competition are estimated using a differentiated products discrete choice demand system. We then employ a second, two-step procedure in which policy functions are first estimated from each firm’s observed actions and outcomes are then matched to a (Markov perfect) equilibrium condition using forward simulation. The parameters of the structural model will then be used to evaluate the competitive impact of eliminating Superscenters using the stochastic algorithm developed in Pakes and McGuire (2001).