IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v16y2024i1p33-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimating the Distaste for Price Gouging with Incentivized Consumer Reports

Author

Listed:
  • Justin Holz
  • Rafael Jiménez-Durán
  • Eduardo Laguna-Müggenburg

Abstract

Thirty-four states prohibit price increases during emergencies, and individuals take costly actions to report violators. We measure experimentally the willingness to pay to report sellers who increase prices of personal protective equipment. Over 75 percent of subjects pay to report, even if others are willing to buy at those prices. We argue that reports contain information about a desire to prevent or punish third-party transactions at unfair or illicit prices. Reports are partially driven by a distaste for firm profits or markups, implying that the distribution of surplus between producers and consumers matters for welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Justin Holz & Rafael Jiménez-Durán & Eduardo Laguna-Müggenburg, 2024. "Estimating the Distaste for Price Gouging with Incentivized Consumer Reports," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 33-59, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:16:y:2024:i:1:p:33-59
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20210428
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210428
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E170543V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210428.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20210428.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20210428?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law

    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:aea:aejapp:v:16:y:2024:i:1:p:33-59. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    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.