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dc.contributor.advisorNancy L. Rose and Paulo Somaini.en_US
dc.contributor.authorIllanes, Gastónen_US
dc.contributor.otherMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2016-07-01T18:46:22Z
dc.date.available2016-07-01T18:46:22Z
dc.date.copyright2016en_US
dc.date.issued2016en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103504
dc.descriptionThesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics, 2016.en_US
dc.descriptionCataloged from PDF version of thesis.en_US
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references (pages 128-136).en_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis studies consumer behavior and strategic interactions between firms in markets that were actively designed by governments. In such settings, government intervention is frequent, firms are often constrained in their actions, and consumer behavior may depart from what is predicted by the standard set of assumptions. The chapters of this thesis study how the current set of regulations is affecting market outcomes in different settings and what can be done to improve them. Chapter 1 studies the Chilean pension system, where workers' mandatory contributions are administered by private companies. This market exhibits fee dispersion and low switching rates, which could be explained by firm differentiation or by switching costs. Using a novel combination of revealed preference inequalities and latent variable integration techniques, I find evidence of large switching costs, and that if these costs did not exist prices would fall to around one-half of currently observed levels. Chapter 2 is a pre-cursor to Chapter 1, studying what would be learned from estimating demand in this market using a more standard set of techniques. I find that ignoring switching costs, individual-level heterogeneity, and endogeneity will lead to implausible demand estimates. These results are the key motivation for the use of the more sophisticated methods used in Chapter 1. Finally, Chapter 3, written with Sarah Moshary, studies the privatization of liquor sales in Washington state. It focuses on a natural experiment induced by privatization, which creates exogenous variation in the number of elegible licensees in local liquor markets, generated by a licensure threshold requirement on store size: only stores larger than 10,000 square feet are allowed to sell liquor. We find that this regulation does not alter the total number of liquor outlets within each market. Instead, it shifts the composition of stores. Also, we find that in markets with an additional potential entrant the product mix is shifted towards cheaper products. This confirms concerns that competition in liquor markets leads to greater availability of cheap alcohol, and suggests that regulation has an effect in limiting the availability of those types of products.en_US
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityby Gastón Illanes.en_US
dc.description.tableofcontentsSwitching Costs in Pension Plan Choice -- Choice in Privatized Social Security Markets -- Estimating the Effect of Potential Entry on Market Outcomes Using a Licensure.en_US
dc.format.extent151 pagesen_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherMassachusetts Institute of Technologyen_US
dc.rightsM.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582en_US
dc.subjectEconomics.en_US
dc.titleEssays on strategic behavior in government-designed marketsen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.description.degreePh. D.en_US
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
dc.identifier.oclc952566584en_US


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