IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v57y2023i1p92-120.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income disclosure and consumer judgment in a multilevel marketing experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Austin M. Miller
  • Samantha Snyder
  • Stacie A. Bosley
  • Sarah Greenman

Abstract

Consumer protection concerns have been raised related to income misrepresentation in multilevel marketing (MLM) recruitment. Though not required by law, some MLM firms choose to voluntarily disclose income information about previous participants. Through replication and extension of the experiment created in Bosley, Greenman, and Snyder (2020), we investigate the impact of these disclosures on consumer interest and earnings expectations. We test the external validity of their findings with subjects from Mechanical Turk and explore issues regarding treatment heterogeneity and better‐than‐average bias. Supporting prior findings, we present evidence that income disclosures, on average, do not significantly affect subjects' interest in the MLM opportunity, but they do decrease earnings estimates for most while increasing earnings estimates for a few. These effects depend on a subject's numeracy skills and whether they see their earnings potential as better‐than‐average. We also find that asking about earnings estimates first tends to decrease interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Austin M. Miller & Samantha Snyder & Stacie A. Bosley & Sarah Greenman, 2023. "Income disclosure and consumer judgment in a multilevel marketing experiment," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 92-120, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:57:y:2023:i:1:p:92-120
    DOI: 10.1111/joca.12492
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12492
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joca.12492?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Michael Collins, 2014. "Protecting Mortgage Borrowers through Risk Awareness: Evidence from Variations in State Laws," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 124-146, March.
    2. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    3. James M. Lacko & Janis K. Pappalardo, 2010. "The Failure and Promise of Mandated Consumer Mortgage Disclosures: Evidence from Qualitative Interviews and a Controlled Experiment with Mortgage Borrowers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 516-521, May.
    4. Skagerlund, Kenny & Lind, Thérèse & Strömbäck, Camilla & Tinghög, Gustav & Västfjäll, Daniel, 2018. "Financial literacy and the role of numeracy–How individuals’ attitude and affinity with numbers influence financial literacy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 18-25.
    5. Taejun (David) Lee & TaiWoong Yun & Eric Haley, 2017. "What You Think You Know: The Effects of Prior Financial Education and Readability on Financial Disclosure Processing," Journal of Behavioral Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 125-142, April.
    6. James Banks & Zoe Oldfield, 2007. "Understanding Pensions: Cognitive Function, Numerical Ability and Retirement Saving," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 28(2), pages 143-170, June.
    7. Bosley, Stacie A. & Bellemare, Marc F. & Umwali, Linda & York, Joshua, 2019. "Decision-making and vulnerability in a pyramid scheme fraud," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Sophie Hieke & Charles R. Taylor, 2012. "A Critical Review of the Literature on Nutritional Labeling," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 120-156, March.
    9. Claudia Groß & Dirk Vriens, 2019. "The Role of the Distributor Network in the Persistence of Legal and Ethical Problems of Multi-level Marketing Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 333-355, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Stacie A. Bosley & Sarah Greenman & Samantha Snyder, 2020. "Voluntary Disclosure And Earnings Expectations In Multi‐Level Marketing," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1643-1662, October.
    2. Nolan, Anne & Whelan, Adele & McGuinness, Seamus & Maître, Bertrand, 2019. "Gender, pensions and income in retirement," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS87.
    3. Nolan, Anne & Doorley, Karina, 2019. "Financial Literacy and Preparation for Retirement," IZA Discussion Papers 12187, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2013. "Locus of Control and Savings," Ruhr Economic Papers 0455, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    5. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2011. "Financial literacy around the world: an overview," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 497-508, October.
    6. Thomas F. Crossley & Tobias Schmidt & Panagiota Tzamourani & Joachim K. Winter, 2021. "Interviewer effects and the measurement of financial literacy," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 184(1), pages 150-178, January.
    7. Davoli, Maddalena & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2021. "Preferences, Financial Literacy, and Economic Development," IZA Discussion Papers 14759, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. repec:zbw:rwirep:0455 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Kassenboehmer, Sonja C. & Sinning, Mathias G., 2016. "Locus of control and savings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 113-130.
    10. O. Seizov & A. J. Wulf & J. Luzak, 2019. "The Transparent Trap: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on the Design of Transparent Online Disclosures in the EU," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 149-173, March.
    11. Oscar A. Stolper & Andreas Walter, 2017. "Financial literacy, financial advice, and financial behavior," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(5), pages 581-643, July.
    12. Leora F. Klapper & Annamaria Lusardi & Georgios A. Panos, 2012. "Financial Literacy and the Financial Crisis," NBER Working Papers 17930, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Christopher B. Bumcrot & Judy Lin & Annamaria Lusardi, 2011. "The Geography of Financial Literacy," Working Papers 893, RAND Corporation.
    14. M. G. Ceravolo & V. Farina & L. Fattobene & L. Leonelli & G. Raggetti, 2021. "Gender-Related Variability in Information Processing of Disclosure Documents," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 217-233, June.
    15. Jappelli, Tullio & Padula, Mario, 2013. "Investment in financial literacy and saving decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2779-2792.
    16. Lührmann, Melanie & Serra-Garcia, Marta & Winter, Joachim, 2015. "Teaching teenagers in finance: Does it work?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 160-174.
    17. Winter, Joachim & Lührmann, Melanie & Serra Garcia, Marta, 2013. "The effects of financial literacy training: Evidence from a field experiment in German high schools," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79744, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. McGowan, Féidhlim P. & Lunn, Peter D., 2020. "Supporting decision-making in retirement planning: Do diagrams on Pension Benefit Statements help?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 323-343, July.
    19. Thérèse Lind & Ali Ahmed & Kenny Skagerlund & Camilla Strömbäck & Daniel Västfjäll & Gustav Tinghög, 2020. "Competence, Confidence, and Gender: The Role of Objective and Subjective Financial Knowledge in Household Finance," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 626-638, December.
    20. Remya Tressa Jacob & Rudra Sensarma, 2022. "Does knowledge empower? A story of debt literacy and credit usage in rural consumer finance," Working papers 529, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    21. Klapper, Leora & Lusardi, Annamaria & Panos, Georgios A., 2013. "Financial literacy and its consequences: Evidence from Russia during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 3904-3923.

    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:bla:jconsa:v:57:y:2023:i:1:p:92-120. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-0078 .

    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.