IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v91y2025i3p1107-1139.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Theme park rides are Giffen goods

Author

Listed:
  • Garth Heutel

Abstract

Using a unique proprietary data set on the behavior of guests visiting theme parks, I document evidence for Giffen behavior in the demand for theme park rides. On average, when the price of a ride increases, that is, the wait time increases, then the probability of riding it increases. This relationship arises predominantly among demand for the least‐desirable rides, it arises predominantly in the theme parks with the fewest number of substitute rides, and it is robust to controlling for expectations of future wait times and other sensitivity analyses. These patterns are all consistent with Giffen behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Garth Heutel, 2025. "Theme park rides are Giffen goods," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 91(3), pages 1107-1139, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:91:y:2025:i:3:p:1107-1139
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12735
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12735
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/soej.12735?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. Reza H. Ahmadi, 1997. "Managing Capacity and Flow at Theme Parks," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 45(1), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Charles van Marrewijk & Peter A. G. van Bergeijk, 1990. "Giffen Goods and the Subsistence Level," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 145-148, Spring.
    3. Robert T. Jensen & Nolan H. Miller, 2008. "Giffen Behavior and Subsistence Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1553-1577, September.
    4. Walter Y. Oi, 1971. "A Disneyland Dilemma: Two-Part Tariffs for a Mickey Mouse Monopoly," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 85(1), pages 77-96.
    5. Davies, John E, 1994. "Giffen Goods, the Survival Imperative, and the Irish Potato Culture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(3), pages 547-565, June.
    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. Vasiliki Kostami & Amy R. Ward, 2009. "Managing Service Systems with an Offline Waiting Option and Customer Abandonment," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 644-656, November.
    2. Yochanan Shachmurove & Janusz Szyrmer, 2011. "Sir Robert Giffen Meets Russia in Early 1990s," PIER Working Paper Archive 11-020, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    3. Di Vita, Giuseppe, 2001. "Are the outputs derived from secondary materials giffen goods?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 255-260, December.
    4. Miller, Anne, 2023. "Demand Theory for Poverty and Affluence: A Contribution to Utility Theory," MPRA Paper 117618, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 13 Jun 2023.
    5. Miller, Anne, 2024. "The Concept of Separate needs in Cardinal Utility Theory: A Functional Form for Added Leaning-S-shaped Utlities," MPRA Paper 121455, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Miller, Anne, 2022. "Demand theory for poverty and affluence," MPRA Paper 116144, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Olli Salmensuu, 2021. "Potato Importance for Development Focusing on Prices," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-14, March.
    8. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7172 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2011. "Price Discrimination," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 22, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Atabek Atayev, 2021. "Nonlinear Prices, Homogeneous Goods, Search," Papers 2109.15198, arXiv.org.
    11. Tarek Abdallah, 2019. "On the Benefit (Or Cost) of Large‐Scale Bundling," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 28(4), pages 955-969, April.
    12. Can, Zeynep Gizem & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Sologon, Denisa Maria & Smith, Darius & Griffin, Rosaleen & Murray, Una, 2023. "Modelling the Distributional Effects of the Cost-of-Living Crisis in Turkey and the South Caucasus: A Microsimulation Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 16619, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Ahmadi, Iman & Skiera, Bernd & Lambrecht, Anja & Heubrandner, Florian, 2017. "Time preferences and the pricing of complementary durables and consumables," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 813-828.
    14. Schlereth, Christian & Stepanchuk, Tanja & Skiera, Bernd, 2010. "Optimization and analysis of the profitability of tariff structures with two-part tariffs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(3), pages 691-701, November.
    15. Lakdawalla, Darius & Sood, Neeraj, 2013. "Health insurance as a two-part pricing contract," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1-12.
    16. Mérel, Pierre & Ortiz-Bobea, Ariel & Paroissien, Emmanuel, 2021. "How big is the “lemons” problem? Historical evidence from French wines," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    17. Yin, Xiangkang, 2004. "Two-part tariff competition in duopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 799-820, June.
    18. Lin, Jessie & Gupta, Anubhab, 2022. "Implications of Farm Size and Staple Production on Rural and Urban Food Security and Dietary Diversity," 96th Annual Conference, April 4-6, 2022, K U Leuven, Belgium 321161, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    19. Se-Hak Chun, 2019. "Cloud Services and Pricing Strategies for Sustainable Business Models: Analytical and Numerical Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    20. Anna D'Souza & Dean Jolliffe, 2012. "Rising Food Prices and Coping Strategies: Household-level Evidence from Afghanistan," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 282-299, August.
    21. Basu, Karna & Wong, Maisy, 2015. "Evaluating seasonal food storage and credit programs in east Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 200-216.

    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:wly:soecon:v:91:y:2025:i:3:p:1107-1139. 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: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    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.