McCluskey, Jill J.

September, 2018

Impacts of Expert Information on Prices for an Experience Good across Product Segments: Tasting Notes andWine Prices

By: Chen, Kuan-Ju; McCluskey, Jill J.
When purchasing experience goods, consumers often rely on information from expert evaluations. In this article, we quantify how expert information impacts prices across product segments. For higher-end products, consumers have the incentive to invest more time in research prior to purchase. Thus, expert evaluations should have a greater impact on the price of higher-end segments. We analyze the effects of tasting notes on wine prices across price categories and find that certain keywords used in tasting notes to describe wine characteristics exert a significant influence on wine prices. These effects vary across different segments, with the greatest impact on the premium segment.
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August, 2014

Beer Snobs Do Exist: Estimation of Beer Demand by Type

By: Toro-Gonzalez, Daniel; McCluskey, Jill J.; Mittelhammer, Ron
Although mass-produced beers still represent the vast majority of U.S. beer sales, there has been a significant growth trend in the craft beer segment. This study analyzes the demand for beer as a differentiated product and estimates own-price, cross-price, and income elasticities for beer by type: craft beer, mass-produced beer, and imported beer. We verify that beer is a normal good with a considerably inelastic demand and also find that the cross-price elasticity across types of beer is close to zero. The results suggest that there are effectively separate markets for beer by type.
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April, 2010

Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Treatment-Induced Quality Attributes in Anjou Pears

By: Zhang, Huifang; Gallardo, Rosa Karina; McCluskey, Jill J.; Kupferman, Eugene M.
Ethylene treatments provide an effective method for shortening post-harvest ripening periods for winter Anjou pears and allow market availability throughout the year. However, pear quality may vary under different treatments. A sensory experiment and a consumer survey including questions that address valuation, assessments of sensory characteristics, purchasing habits, and demographics were conducted. Analyses indicate that treatment-induced quality losses significantly affect consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP). Mean WTP for each treatment reveals that consumers prefer pears with a six-day ethylene treatment and are willing to pay a premium of $0.25/pound compared to the market price.
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April, 2005

Reputation and Production Standards

By: McCluskey, Jill J.; Loureiro, Maria L.
This paper analyzes a monopolist's behavior when consumers cannot observe the production standards. These types of products are usually known as credence goods. The steady-state level of quality with credence goods is found to be lower than that with experience goods, and perfect information goods. The finding that only perceived quality, which is effectively a filtered version of true quality, affects reputation indicates rewards for high quality production are lower in the credence good case. Further, an increase in the level of monitoring can increase the true level of product quality in the market for credence goods.
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December, 2001

ASSESSING CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR ORGANIC, ECO-LABELED, AND REGULAR APPLES

By: Loureiro, Maria L.; McCluskey, Jill J.; Mittelhammer, Ronald C.
We assess consumer choice of eco-labeled, organic, and regular apples, and identify sociodemographic characteristics affecting the choice among those three alternatives. Eco-labeled apples are less desirable than organic when food safety, the environment, and children's needs are considered. Characteristics that may be expected to positively affect the decision to buy eco-labeled apples relative to regular apples actually have the opposite effect with the inclusion of the organic alternative. When considering all three choices, the eco-labeled product is found to be an intermediate choice among consumers.
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July, 1999

FEDERAL GRAZING REFORM AND AVOIDABLE RISK

By: McCluskey, Jill J.; Rausser, Gordon C.
Recent rangeland reform attempts have increased ranchers' uncertainty of retaining grazing permits on federal land. This uncertainty is analyzed with a model of grazing on federal land. Ranchers facing this uncertainty will behave differently than if they were guaranteed the renewal of grazing permits at constant real grazing fees. It is shown that the socially optimal outcome may be achieved by adding avoidable risk through targeted rangeland reform. Rangeland reform attempts that create unavoidable risk can make both ranchers and environmental groups worse off.
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