David Albert Thigpen

The Theory Behind Magazine Business Decisions David Albert Thigpen

This thesis looks at the print magazine industry as a whole. It seeks to determine whether or not magazines are charging enough for their content. It also looks at the impact of income on a consumer's decision to buy a magazine. It seeks to find out whether the market for magazine advertising is a competitive market, and studies the responsiveness of magazines to a change in ad rates. Along the way, some attention will be paid to properly setting up the measurement of relative elasticities. Specifically, whether or not the own-price elasticity of demand or the income elasticity of demand can be measured for any free form of media. Also, some comments will be made about the independent variables needed in the regression model to measure the income elasticity of a free good and whether or not those variables are easily measurable.