EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

On the Incidence and Variety of Low-Price Guarantees

Maria Arbatskaya (), Morten Hviid and Greg Shaffer

Journal of Law & Economics, 2004, vol. 47, issue 1, pages 307-32

Abstract: This paper provides evidence of the incidence and variety of low-price guarantees (promises to match or beat a rival's price) using data obtained from newspaper advertisements in 37 metropolitan areas in the United States. We have a total of 515 low-price guarantees in our sample. We document their features, and we infer firms' motives and effects from these features. The evidence suggests that the majority of low-price guarantees are not consistent with their use as a facilitating device because they tend to apply only to rival firms' advertised prices or they are associated with high hassle costs. The evidence also suggests that price-beating and price-matching guarantees differ significantly in their features. The former are associated with higher hassle costs, apply disproportionately to rival firms' advertised prices, and are more likely to allow postsale search than are price-matching guarantees.

Date: 2004
View citations in EconPapers

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: On the incidence and Variety of Low-Price Guarantees (1999) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jlawec:y:2004:v:47:i:1:p:307-32

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLE/order1.html

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Law & Economics is edited by Dennis W. Carlton, Austan Goolsbee, Randall S. Krosner, Douglas Lichtman and Edward A. Snyder

More articles in Journal of Law & Economics from University of Chicago Press
Address: The University of Chicago Press, Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005 Chicago, IL 60637
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().

 
Page updated 2009-11-18
Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:y:2004:v:47:i:1:p:307-32