On the value of second opinions: A credence goods field experiment

Parampreet Christopher Bindra, Rudolf Kerschbamer, Daniel Neururer and Matthias Sutter

Economics Letters, 2021, vol. 205, issue C

Abstract: Credence goods markets with their asymmetric information between buyers and sellers are prone to large inefficiencies. In theory, poorly informed consumers can protect themselves from maltreatment through sellers by gathering second opinions from other sellers. Yet, field experimental evidence whether this is a successful strategy is scarce. Here we present a natural field experiment in the market for computer repairs and show that revealing a second opinion from another expert does neither increase the rate of successful repairs nor decrease the average repair price charged by sellers.

Keywords: Credence goods; Expert services; Second opinions; Natural field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176521002020
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:205:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521002020

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109925

Access Statistics for this article

Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office

More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().