An empirical survey on the obsolescence of appliances in German households

Laura Hennies and Rainer Stamminger

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2016, vol. 112, issue C, 73-82

Abstract: Obsolescence is the wearing out of technical appliances. Planned obsolescence is often seen as an economic strategy to improve sales by reducing the lifespan of these appliances. Although there are a lot of public discussions about planned obsolescence, there is a lack of data available to support or contradict this hypothesis. The objective of this survey is to collect quantitative data about the maintenance and discarding history of five household appliances throughout their lifecycle in private households in Germany. The survey is an internet-based questionnaire. A total of 1075 respondents were recruited in Germany and included in the evaluation.

Keywords: Obsolescence; Expected lifespan; Consumer behaviour; Household appliances; Laptop; TV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:recore:v:112:y:2016:i:c:p:73-82

DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.04.013

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