Fairness Crowded Out by Law: An Experimental Study on Withdrawal Rights

Georg Borges and Bernd Irlenbusch ()

Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), 2007, vol. 163, issue 1, 84-101

Abstract: Withdrawal rights protect buyers in distance selling, for example when ordering via the Internet. After introducing such a law in Germany the proportion of returned goods drastically increased although most sellers had already offered a return option before. We experimentally investigate scenarios in which sellers can voluntarily offer a withdrawal right. In a second treatment it is provided by law. We find indications that a voluntary provision is perceived as friendly, so that buyers reciprocate by not exploiting sellers too heavily. A third treatment reveals that small return costs for buyers have only a marginal influence on withdrawal behaviour.

JEL-codes: C91 K12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/fairness-cr ... 28093245607780181937 (text/html)
Fulltext access is included for subscribers to the printed version.

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:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(200703)163:1_84:fcobla_2.0.tx_2-f

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG, P.O.Box 2040, 72010 Tübingen, Germany

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE) is currently edited by Gerd Mühlheußer and Bayer, Ralph-C

More articles in Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE) from Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Wolpert ().