Başak Altan
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Economics
In my dissertation “Essays in Durable Goods Monopolies”, I analyze an unexplored motive, quality differentiation, for solving the commitment problem of a durable goods monopolist. I study a vertically differentiated market for an imperfectly durable good served by a monopolist in an infinite horizon, discrete time game. I characterize Markov perfect equilibria of this game as a function of the common discount rate, the common depreciation rate of the goods, the length of the time period between successive price changes and the quality levels of the goods. I establish that quality differentiation may enhance market power of a durable goods monopolist and alleviate the commitment problem.
In a working paper, titled "Allocation of Campaign Resources in Sequential Elections with Informative Advertising", I study the strategic allocation of campaign funds for political advertising in sequential elections. My preliminary results show that campaign advertising is crucial in early stages and in close races, and that candidates can trigger social learning and momentum by heavily investing in advertisement in early stages.
Job Market Paper and Working Papers