Price Determinants and Depreciation of Used Cars Post-COVID-19
by Ayaan Sundeep Patel
Abstract
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of used cars has fluctuated greatly due to numerous factors. Inflation and supply chain issues have been at the forefront of the news and have affected not only cars but most consumer goods. While the majority of society has seemingly progressed past COVID-19, its effects still linger in the used car market, as prices rose 4.6% from January 2023 to February 2023. Therefore, in an effort to study this phenomenon, I scraped data from autotrader.co.uk on February 23, 2023. This study aims to understand the effect of various factors, including mileage, age, and engine size, on various classes of used cars. The five classes being studied are compact cars, luxury sports sedans, luxury mid-size sedans, luxury full-size sedans, and luxury SUVs. A log-linear model is used to model the price determinants of the used cars. A linear model is incorporated to model the depreciation rate of the cars in the dataset. Lastly, this model is used to predict the three-year depreciation rate for each car model, which is then compared to the pre-COVID-19 three-year depreciation rate to see the inflated prices in the UK used car market.
Professor Michelle Connolly, Faculty Advisor
Professor Andrea Lanteri, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: D12, J11, L62
The Toll of Commuting: The Effects of Commute Time on Well-Being
by M. Thomas Marshall Jr.
Abstract
When deciding on housing location, people theoretically optimize for the best location given their commute time, housing cost, income, as well as other factors. Stutzer and Frey (2008) suggest that this is not true in some nations, such as in their investigation of Germany, with their results showing that the cost of an average commute is equivalent to 35.4% of the average income. This paper investigates the impact of commute time on the well-being of individuals in the United States, correcting for various other factors that determine housing choice such as race,
age, and whether they have a child living at home. The results of this study are clearly that the relationship found between commuting time and well-being cannot be proven to be statistically significant from zero, so there is not any evidence against optimization.
Kent Kimbrough, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: D12, D61, R31, R41
How Consumers Make Impulse Purchases and the Influence of Peers and a Market-Based Setting
By Arjan Saraon
Many organizations are designed to protect, educate and helping consumer with their financial decision–making. This paper examines the valuation of various non–essential goods in both a marketplace setting and slider–based setting, and in both a neutral influence and social influence condition. In a marketplace valuation setting, it is found that prices and price–searching behavior are the most significant predictors of a decision to checkout a good. In the slider–based valuation setting, it is found that the condition and a psychological impulsive measure are the most significant indicators of willingness–to–pay. Price–searching behavior indicated that the influence of responsible peers is as effective at reining in impulsive decisions as the more conventional, neutral method. Finally, a phenomena of paying more in the marketplace schema compared to the slider based schema appeared, despite the incentives being exactly the same. This was likely due to anchoring effects of the presented prices and list price.
Advisor: Alison Hagy, Kent Kimbrough, Rachel Kranton | JEL Codes: D12, | Tagged: Behavioral economics, Impulse Purchasing, Anchoring Effect, Market-based Valuation, Price-searching
The Impact of Online Streaming on Primetime Viewership An Econometric Analysis of Technological Change, Network Practices and Audience Behavior
By Yeshwanth Kandimalla
This study considers the impact of online streaming on the viewership of popular primetime programs aired on four major U.S broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. The time period considered will begin with the 2004-2005 TV season through the 2011-2012 season. Technological change, primarily with faster Internet speeds, spurred some growth of online video streaming. Furthermore, over this time period, the four major networks all authorized streaming at different levels. This variation in availability provides the heterogeneity needed to compare the effect of making programs available
online. The existing literature has posited two effects of online streaming: substitution away from traditional TV viewing due to lower costs or complementarity by drawing in additional viewers. Using this framework, this study conducts an empirical analysis of TV viewership and online availability with a panel of more than 3,500 episodes across 8 seasons and 42 programs. The results strongly suggest that online streaming options drive statistically significant substitution away from traditional TV viewing, a trend that can have major consequences for the distribution of TV programs and the broadcast TV business as a whole.
Advisor: Michael Munger, Michelle Connolly | JEL Codes: D12, D22, L82 | Tagged: Big Four, Cable Cord-cutting, FOX, Hulu, Network Television, Networks, Online Streaming
