Overview

In today’s ever-evolving economic landscape, understanding consumer behavior and accurately estimating demand are paramount for businesses, policymakers, and researchers alike. This workshop provides an introduction for economists to delve into various methodologies and techniques developed in the field of Industrial Organization that are essential for a theoretically sound and empirically convincing demand estimation. Through a combination of methods and practical applications, participants will gain valuable skills to model and estimate consumer preferences and make insightful contributions to their field of research. The workshop curriculum covers the two most common empirical demand environments: demand systems in product space and demand systems in characteristic space, with a focus on discrete choice models (BLP models). We will also cover successfull empirical applications of those environments from academic articles that explore a diverse spectrum of industries such as beverage, primary education, retail groceries, etc.