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Abstract
This study identifies consumer welfare from new brand introductions in the potato chip
market. Price and variety effects of new brand introduction are measured by estimating a
demand system underlying an expenditure function. Variety effects are positive in most
cities, while price effects are generally negative when consumers exhibit some variety preference.
Variety effects dominate price effects in most cities; an opposite effect observed in
some cities may indicate high entry barriers or joint brand- and price-based marketing
strategies. Results indicate that consumers and producers gain from product innovations, but
substantial regional variation exists in the distributional effects of new brand introduction.