Essays on Information Transmission and its Effects in Markets with Imperfect Competition

Abstract

This thesis consists of four essays in the field of industrial organization. The essays explore questions of information transmission and its influence in markets characterized by imperfect competition.<br /> The first part of this thesis, chapters one and two, examines the incentives of a manufacturer to communicate and reveal private information about his product to consumers in a setting where consumers are not served by the manufacturer directly but instead purchase the manufacturer's good from a retailer who resells the good bought from the producer.The second part, chapters three and four, analyzes the effects of consumer learning on how firms design their products with respect to the products of the competitors.