000			02649cam a22003377 4500
001			w7996
003			NBER
005			20211020113449.0
006			m o d
007			cr cnu||||||||
008			210910s2000 mau fo 000 0 eng d
100	1		_aBrown, Jeffrey R. _96903
245	1	0	_aDoes the Internet Make Markets More Competitive? / _cJeffrey R. Brown, Austan Goolsbee.
260			_aCambridge, Mass. _bNational Bureau of Economic Research _c2000.
300			_a1 online resource: _billustrations (black and white);
490	1		_aNBER working paper series _vno. w7996
500			_aNovember 2000.
520	3		_aThe Internet has the potential to significantly reduce search costs by allowing consumers to engage in low-cost price comparisons online. This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact that the rise of Internet comparison shopping sites has had for the prices of life insurance in the 1990s. Using micro data on individual life insurance policies, the results indicate that, controlling for individual and policy characteristics, a 10 percent increase in the share of individuals in a group using the Internet reduces average insurance prices for the group by as much as 5 percent. Further evidence indicates that prices did not fall with rising Internet usage for insurance types that were not covered by the comparison websites, nor did they in the period before the insurance sites came online. The results suggest that growth of the Internet has reduced term life prices by 8 to 15 percent and increased consumer surplus by $115-215 million per year and perhaps more. The results also show that the initial introduction of the Internet search sites is initially associated with an increase in price dispersion within demographic groups, but as the share of people using the technology rises further, dispersion falls.
530			_aHardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
538			_aSystem requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files.
538			_aMode of access: World Wide Web.
588	0		_aPrint version record
690		7	_aL1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance _2Journal of Economic Literature class.
690		7	_aO4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity _2Journal of Economic Literature class.
700	1		_aGoolsbee, Austan. _911669
710	2		_aNational Bureau of Economic Research.
830		0	_aWorking Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) _vno. w7996.
856	4	0	_uhttps://www.nber.org/papers/w7996
856			_yAcceso en línea al DOI _uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w7996
942			_2ddc _cW-PAPER
999			_c340212 _d298774