Data and Code for: Estimating the Distaste for Price Gouging with Incentivized Consumer Reports

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Justin Holz, University of Chicago. Social Sciences Division; Rafael Jimenez-Duran, Social Science Research Council and Chicago Booth Stigler Center; Eduardo Laguna-Müggenburg, Grammarly, Inc

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
price_gouging			11/17/2022 10:55:AM

Project Citation:

Holz, Justin, Jimenez-Duran, Rafael, and Laguna-Müggenburg, Eduardo. Data and Code for: Estimating the Distaste for Price Gouging with Incentivized Consumer Reports. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2023. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-12-11. https://doi.org/10.3886/E170543V1

Project Description

Summary: Thirty-four states prohibit price increases during emergencies and individuals take costly actions to report violators. We measure experimentally the willingness to pay to report sellers who increase prices of personal protective equipment. Over 75% of subjects pay to report even if others are willing to buy at those prices. We argue that reports contain information about a desire to prevent or punish third-party transactions at unfair or illicit prices. Reports are partially driven by a distaste for firm profits or markups, implying that the distribution of surplus between producers and consumers matters for welfare.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: price gouging; consumer reports; experiment; price controls

JEL Classification:
      D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
      D64 Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
      D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

Geographic Coverage: USA

Time Period(s): 3/1/2020 – 6/1/2020

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Published Versions

V1 [2023-12-11]

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