Rising repair costs and the throwaway society

John McCollough and Ailian Qiu

Economic Affairs, 2021, vol. 41, issue 2, 284-298

Abstract: When faced with a malfunctioning household product, consumers can choose to repair their older product for further reuse or they can discard it and purchase a newly manufactured version. Electing to replace the older, malfunctioning product may impact the environment negatively. Over time repair costs have been rising faster than the cost of newly manufactured products. As a result, many more consumers are choosing to not have their older products repaired. This article examines empirically the cause of rising repair costs, taking automobiles as an example, and discusses wider issues around the ‘throwaway society’.

Date: 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12477

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