TY  - BOOK
AU  - Elias,Julio J.
AU  - Lacetera,Nicola
AU  - Macis,Mario
ED  - National Bureau of Economic Research.
TI  - Is the Price Right? The Role of Economic Tradeoffs in Explaining Reactions to Price Surges
T2  - NBER working paper series
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Cambridge, Mass.
PB  - National Bureau of Economic Research
KW  - Survey Methods • Sampling Methods
KW  - jelc
KW  - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
KW  - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
KW  - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
KW  - Analysis of Health Care Markets
KW  - General
KW  - Cultural Economics • Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology
N1  - April 2022; Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
N2  - Public authorities often introduce price controls in response to price surges, potentially causing inefficiencies and shortages. In a survey experiment with 7,612 Canadian and US respondents, we find that unregulated price increases cause general disapproval and strong moral reactions. However, acceptance is higher, and demand for regulation lower, when potential economic tradeoffs between controlled and unregulated prices are salient, and if the incentives resulting from price surges ultimately enhance access to goods. Highlighting tradeoffs also reduces the polarization of moral reactions between supporters and opponents of unregulated pricing. Text analysis of open-ended answers further supports our findings, and a donation experiment shows consistency between stated and revealed preferences
UR  - https://www.nber.org/papers/w29963
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w29963
ER  -