IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v41y2009i22p2867-2885.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The market for used cars: new evidence of the lemons phenomenon

Author

Listed:
  • Winand Emons
  • George Sheldon

Abstract

The lemons model assumes that owners of used cars have an information advantage over potential buyers with respect to the quality of their vehicles. Owners of bad cars try to sell them to ill-informed buyers while owners of good cars hold on to theirs. Consequently, the quality of traded automobiles tends to be sub-average. In contrast to previous empirical work, the following article investigates the behaviour of both buyers and sellers, testing for adverse selection by sellers and for quality uncertainty among buyers with a sample consisting of all 1985 cars registered in the Swiss canton of Basle City over the period 1985 to 1991. Our data supports both adverse selection and buyer uncertainty, suggesting that a lemons problem exists.

Suggested Citation

  • Winand Emons & George Sheldon, 2009. "The market for used cars: new evidence of the lemons phenomenon," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(22), pages 2867-2885.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:41:y:2009:i:22:p:2867-2885
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840802277332
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840802277332
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036840802277332?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert H. Porter & Peter Sattler, 1999. "Patterns of Trade in the Market for Used Durables: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 7149, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Xingliang & Spielman, David J. & Nazli, Hina & Zambrano, Patricia & Zaidi, Fatima & Kouser, Shahzad, 2014. "Information efficiency in a lemons market: Evidence from Bt cotton seed market in Pakistan," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 175278, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Hoffmann, Vivian & Mutiga, Samuel & Harvey, Jagger & Nelson, Rebecca & Milgroom, Michael, 2013. "Asymmetric Information and Food Safety: Maize in Kenya," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 151288, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Justin P. Johnson & Henry S. Schneider & Michael Waldman, 2014. "The Role and Growth of New-Car Leasing: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(3), pages 665-698.
    4. Justin P. Johnson & Michael Waldman, 2010. "Leasing, Lemons, and Moral Hazard," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 307-328, May.
    5. Born, Alexander & Kovachka, Nikoleta & Lessmann, Stefan & Seow, Hsin-Vonn, 2018. "Price Management in the Used-Car Market: An Evaluation of Survival Analysis," IRTG 1792 Discussion Papers 2018-065, Humboldt University of Berlin, International Research Training Group 1792 "High Dimensional Nonstationary Time Series".
    6. Strittmatter, Anthony & Lechner, Michael, 2020. "Sorting in the used-car market after the Volkswagen emission scandal," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    7. Jonathan R. Peterson & Henry S. Schneider, 2017. "Beautiful Lemons: Adverse Selection in Durable-Goods Markets with Sorting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(9), pages 3111-3127, September.
    8. Jonathan R. Peterson & Henry S. Schneider, 2014. "Adverse selection in the used-car market: evidence from purchase and repair patterns in the Consumer Expenditure Survey," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(1), pages 140-154, March.
    9. Jordan Martel & Kenneth Mirkin & Brian Waters, 2022. "Learning by Owning in a Lemons Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(3), pages 1737-1785, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clerides, Sofronis & Hadjiyiannis, Costas, 2008. "Quality standards for used durables: An indirect subsidy?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 268-282, July.
    2. Thomas W. Gilligan, 2004. "Lemons and Leases in the Used Business Aircraft Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(5), pages 1157-1186, October.
    3. Pasquale Schiraldi, 2006. "Second-Hand Markets and Collusion by Manufacturers of Semidurable Goods," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2006-028, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    4. Tilson, Vera & Zheng, Xiaobo, 2014. "Monopoly production and pricing of finitely durable goods with strategic consumers׳ fluctuating willingness to pay," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 217-232.
    5. cianni, victor, 2020. "Pricing (almost) any used goods: a first step towards a theoretical framework," MPRA Paper 105053, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Jonathan R. Peterson & Henry S. Schneider, 2017. "Beautiful Lemons: Adverse Selection in Durable-Goods Markets with Sorting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(9), pages 3111-3127, September.
    7. Avner Offer, 2005. "The Markup for Lemons: Quality and Uncertainty in American and British Used-Car Markets c.1953-1973," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _060, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Kumar, Praveen, 2002. "Price and quality discrimination in durable goods monopoly with resale trading," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(9), pages 1313-1339, November.
    9. Pasquale Schiraldi, 2011. "Automobile replacement: a dynamic structural approach," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 42(2), pages 266-291, June.
    10. Justin P. Johnson & Henry S. Schneider & Michael Waldman, 2014. "The Role and Growth of New-Car Leasing: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(3), pages 665-698.
    11. Raghunath Singh Rao & Om Narasimhan & George John, 2009. "Understanding the Role of Trade-Ins in Durable Goods Markets: Theory and Evidence," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 950-967, 09-10.
    12. Alexandre Mas, 2008. "Labour Unrest and the Quality of Production: Evidence from the Construction Equipment Resale Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(1), pages 229-258.
    13. Toshiaki Iizuka, 2007. "An Empirical Analysis of Planned Obsolescence," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 191-226, March.
    14. Blonigen, Bruce A. & Knittel, Christopher R. & Soderbery, Anson, 2017. "Keeping it fresh: Strategic product redesigns and welfare," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 170-214.
    15. Justin P. Johnson & Michael Waldman, 2010. "Leasing, Lemons, and Moral Hazard," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 307-328, May.
    16. Michael Waldman, 2003. "Durable Goods Theory for Real World Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 131-154, Winter.
    17. Aronsson, Thomas & Sjögren, Tomas & Witterblad, Mikael, 2008. "Optimal Taxation and Asymmetric Information in an Economy with Second-Hand Trade," Umeå Economic Studies 732, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    18. Lacourbe, Paul, 2016. "Durable goods leasing in the presence of exporting used products to an international secondary market," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 448-456.
    19. Maxim Engers & Monica Hartmann & Steven Stern, 2009. "Annual miles drive used car prices," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(1), pages 1-33.
    20. Igal Hendel & Alessandro Lizzeri, 2002. "The Role of Leasing under Adverse Selection," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(1), pages 113-143, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:41:y:2009:i:22:p:2867-2885. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.