Research

Independent research in applied economics

Evaluating the Strategic Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsements

A Cross-Industry Analysis of Revenue Impact and Reverse Endorsement Spillover

Scholarly Review Journal · Vol. Fall 2026, Issue 17 · Reviewed as “Excellent paper”

March to June 2026 · Under the guidance of Dr. Meera Malhan (PhD, Delhi School of Economics)

This paper asks how much celebrity endorsements actually move revenue. It combines a before-and-after comparison of company financials around each endorsement with case-study analysis across sports, beverage, sin-goods and influencer-driven brands.

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Letter of recommendation, Dr. Meera MalhanView PDF

Findings

Nike & L’Oréal

Clear positive revenue impact following celebrity endorsement.

Pepsi

Endorsement worked defensively, protecting revenue in a mature category rather than driving new growth.

Budweiser

Revenue grew, but margins compressed, reflecting volatility in the sin-goods industry.

BYJU’s & Shah Rukh Khan

The firm’s financial decline damaged the celebrity’s reputation, the reverse of the usual direction.

42%Revenue growth driven by endorsement, at the high end

Two new frameworks. The paper proposes the defensive endorsement hypothesis, where endorsement protects revenue in mature industries, and the reverse endorsement spillover effect, where a failing firm drags down the celebrity.

Outcome. Endorsement returns are strongest when the celebrity fits the brand and the market is mature, while celebrities carry an asymmetric risk they rarely price into contracts. Reviewers rated it an “Excellent paper”.

Determinants of Dietary Food Prices in India

A Pre- and Post-COVID Comparative Analysis

Curieux Review · March 2026, Issue 5, Part 2 · CREST Gold Award

November 2025 to February 2026

A quantitative, time-series comparison of dietary food prices in India before and after COVID. The paper asks whether prices of meat and fish, milk and milk products, and eggs are driven by inflation or by consumer interest, using the Google Search Volume Index as a proxy for interest.

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CREST Gold Award · British Science Association · View certificate

How the analysis works

Data

Monthly prices for meat and fish, milk and milk products, and eggs, with CPI, from the RBI Database on the Indian Economy. Consumer interest from Google Trends searches for “diet” in India.

Periods

Pre-COVID, January 2019 to December 2021, and post-COVID, January 2022 to December 2024.

Model

A separate OLS regression for each food category in each period, six in total, run in Excel. Significance at the 5% level.

Hypotheses

H₁: pre-COVID prices track inflation, not search interest. H₂: post-COVID the inflation link weakens and consumer interest matters more.

Model, estimated for each food category and periodPrice_t = β₀ + β₁·CPI_t + β₂·GSVI_t + ε_t

Pre-COVID · 2019 to 2021

	CPI β	Search β
Meat & fish	0.329p = 0.010	0.211p = 0.005
Milk & milk products	0.375p = < 0.001	−0.054p = 0.141
Eggs	0.483p = 0.031	0.217p = 0.092

Post-COVID · 2022 to 2024

	CPI β	Search β
Meat & fish	0.438p = 0.070	0.119p = 0.141
Milk & milk products	−0.493p = 0.006	0.116p = 0.048
Eggs	−0.484p = 0.121	−0.407p = 0.0003

Significant at p < 0.05. Coefficients and p-values as reported in Tables 1 to 6 of the paper.

3 of 3Food categories where CPI was significant before COVID

1 of 3After COVID, and with the sign reversed for milk

Outcome. Before COVID, dietary food prices moved with inflation and consumer interest played a limited role. After COVID the inflation link became inconsistent, while search interest became significant for milk and eggs, pointing to greater behavioural sensitivity. The paper concludes that pricing shifted from inflation-driven to mixed determinants, which matters for policymakers and inflation management.

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