ABSTRACT

Examines consumer decision-making on products and services of variable quality at the level of retail markets. Addresses for the first time consumer-producer interaction at the level of the individual consumer; issues of quality, consumption experience, and willingness-to-pay, as exhibited by individual consumers; and how these issues affect the decision-making process.

part I|88 pages

Evolution of Variable Quality in Economic Thought

chapter Chapter 1|4 pages

Introduction

chapter Chapter 2|21 pages

Early Attempts to Introduce Variable Quality

chapter Chapter 3|14 pages

Theory of the Consumer and Variable Quality

The Contributions of James Duesenberry and Henri Theil

chapter Chapter 4|15 pages

Theory of the Consumer and Variable Quality

The Contribution of Hendrik Houthakker

chapter Chapter 5|5 pages

Quantity-Quality Trade-Offs

The Contribution of Jack Hirshleifer

chapter Chapter 6|27 pages

Wants, Characteristics, Price Indices, and Variable Quality

Ironmonger, Lancaster, Fisher and Shell, Muellbauer, and Others

part I|180 pages

A New Economic Theory of the Consumer

chapter Chapter 7|14 pages

Interpretations of the Houthakker Constraint

chapter Chapter 9|8 pages

Stability of b i , Attractors, and Self-Perception

A Feigenbaum Model of Consumer Decision Making

chapter Chapter 11|7 pages

Consumer–Producer Interaction and the Market

chapter Chapter 12|10 pages

Transaction Regions, Neighborhoods, and Targeting

chapter Chapter 13|37 pages

Individual Consumer Demand from Quality–Quantity Space

chapter Chapter 14|45 pages

Individual Consumer Demand from x i x j Space

Interaction with the ith Commodity Producer

chapter Chapter 15|28 pages

Individual Consumer Demand from xixj Space

Consumer Interaction with the ith and jth Commodity Producers