Managerial Economics & Business Strategy 8th Edition by Michael Baye,Jeff Prince

Exercise 15

According to CNN, two dairy farmers challenged the legality of the funding of the "Got Milk?" campaigns. They argued that the "Got Milk?" campaigns do little to support milk from cows that are not injected with hormones and other sustainable agriculture products, and therefore violate their (and other farmers') First Amendment rights. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and concluded that dairy farmers cannot be required to pay to fund the advertising campaigns. One of the obvious backlashes to the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board is reduced funding for advertising campaigns. To assess the likely impact on milk consumption, suppose that the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board collected data on the number of gallons of milk households consumed weekly (in millions), weekly price per gallon, and weekly expenditures on milk advertising (in hundreds of dollars). These data, in forms to estimate both a linear model and log-linear model, are available online at www.mhhe.com/baye8e in a file named Q20.xls. Use these data to perform two regressions: a linear regression and a log-linear regression. Compare and contrast the regression output of the two models. Comment on which model does a better job fitting the data. Suppose that the weekly price of milk is $3.40 per gallon and the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board's weekly advertising expenditures fall 35 percent after the court's ruling to $150 (in hundreds). Use the best-fitting regression model to estimate the weekly quantity of milk consumed after the court's ruling.