The Effects of Comparative Advertising Mediated by Market Position of Sponsoring Brand

An experimental test of the relative effectiveness of comparative and non-comparative advertising was performed. Mock print ads for fast food chains were constructed and presented to respondents in a simulated magazine mode. The market position of the sponsoring brand was manipulated in both comparative and non-comparative formats. Multiple criterion variables were operationalized corresponding to all stages of the hierarchy-of-effects paradigm. On balance, for the nine hypotheses tested, results revealed that non-comparative advertising was demonstrably more effective than comparative advertising.     

Victor J. Tremblay and Carol Horton Tremblay. The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005. xiv + 379 pp. ISBN 0-262-20151-8, $40.00 (cloth).

The brewing industry does not appear to have attracted the sameresponse from business historians in the United States thatit has in countries such as Britain, where there have been severalauthoritative monographs. This book is therefore welcome. Writtenby the leading economists of American brewing, Victor J. Tremblayand Carol Horton Tremblay, it provides a comprehensive and analyticaloverview of the industry in the modern period. After setting out the general demand and cost     

Endogenous growth theory: a critique

Endogenous growth theory is based on a misperception of how science and technology are acquired and diffused. In particular, it is incorrect to assume that knowledge is freely available. Any knowledge which has economic value has to be accessed via the brains of experts who are members of the relevant 'invisible college' and are rivalrous.It therefore has the characteristics of a private good which can be left to conventional economic incentives to supply.