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The Effect of Product Misperception on Economic Outcomes: Evidence from the Extended Warranty Market

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Miguel Abito
  • Yuval Salant

Abstract

Panel and experimental data are used to analyse the economic outcomes in the extended warranty market. We establish that the strong demand and high profits in this market are driven by consumers distorting the failure probability of the insured product, rather than standard risk aversion or sellers’ market power. Providing information to consumers about failure probabilities significantly reduces their willingness to pay for warranties, indicating the important role of information, or lack of, in driving consumers’ purchase behaviour. Such information provision is shown to be more effective in enhancing consumer welfare than additional market competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Miguel Abito & Yuval Salant, 2019. "The Effect of Product Misperception on Economic Outcomes: Evidence from the Extended Warranty Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(6), pages 2285-2318.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:86:y:2019:i:6:p:2285-2318.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdy045
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Xiaolin & Zhao, Xiujie & Liu, Bin, 2020. "Design and pricing of extended warranty menus based on the multinomial logit choice model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(1), pages 237-250.
    2. Markus Fels, 2020. "Mental Accounting, Access Motives, and Overinsurance," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(2), pages 675-701, April.
    3. Marc A. Ragin & Benjamin L. Collier & Johannes G. Jaspersen, 2021. "The effect of information disclosure on demand for high‐load insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(1), pages 161-193, March.
    4. Ori Heffetz & Guy Ishai, 2021. "Which Beliefs? Behavior-Predictive Beliefs are Inconsistent with Information-Based Beliefs: Evidence from COVID-19," NBER Working Papers 29452, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. David de Meza & Diane Reyniers, 2023. "Insuring Replaceable Possessions," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(357), pages 271-284, January.
    6. Stephen G Dimmock & Roy Kouwenberg & Olivia S Mitchell & Kim Peijnenburg, 2021. "Household Portfolio Underdiversification and Probability Weighting: Evidence from the Field," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(9), pages 4524-4563.
    7. Anastasia Burkovskaya & Adam Teperski & Kadir Atalay, 2022. "Framing and insurance choices," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(2), pages 311-337, June.
    8. Feng, Jingbing & Xu, Xian & Zou, Hong, 2023. "Risk communication clarity and insurance demand: The case of the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    9. Aurélien Baillon & Aleli Kraft & Owen O’Donnell & Kim Wilgenburg, 2022. "A behavioral decomposition of willingness to pay for health insurance," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 64(1), pages 43-87, February.
    10. Patrick Opoku Asuming, 2023. "Risk attitudes and asset diversification: Evidence from Ghana," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(5), pages 915-960, July.
    11. Johannes G. Jaspersen & Marc A. Ragin & Justin R. Sydnor, 2019. "Predicting Insurance Demand from Risk Attitudes," NBER Working Papers 26508, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Johannes G. Jaspersen & Marc A. Ragin & Justin R. Sydnor, 2022. "Insurance demand experiments: Comparing crowdworking to the lab," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(4), pages 1077-1107, December.
    13. Johannes G. Jaspersen & Marc A. Ragin & Justin R. Sydnor, 2022. "Predicting insurance demand from risk attitudes," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(1), pages 63-96, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Probability overestimation; Extended warranty; Risk preferences; Consumer protection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • G02 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Finance: Underlying Principles
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies

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