Relationships Between Consumer Market Data
and Econometric Demand Studies
In the 1998 book Studies in Consumer Demand: Econometric Methods Applied
to Market Data, Jeffrey A. Dubin illustrated the relationships between consumer
market data, which managers typically use, and formal econometric demand studies
based on these data.35 In many cases, researchers analyze market data to obtain
insights on what variables to include in their econometric models of demand.
Although Dubin employed advanced econometric methods to estimate the demand
for various products, we focus on two selected cases—Carnation Coffee-mate and
Carnation Evaporated Milk—to illustrate the relationships between consumer market
data and econometric models of demand. We also discuss a recent study estimating
the demand for cheese in the United States