Are Consumers Poorly Informed about Fuel Economy? Evidence from Two Experiments
Name
pol.20170019.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
869.29 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3245445914fb72be83ebe1e4e4cc5bf1
Author(s)
Allcott, Hunt
Knittel, Christopher Roland
Date Issued
February 2019
Journal
AEJ: Economic Policy
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Allcott, Hunt and Christopher Knittel. "Are Consumers Poorly Informed about Fuel Economy? Evidence from Two Experiments." AEJ: Economic Policy 11, 1 (February 2019): 1-37. © 2019 American Economic Association
Version
Final published version
Abstract
It is often asserted that consumers are poorly informed about and inattentive to fuel economy, causing them to buy low-fuel economy vehicles despite their own best interest. This paper presents evidence on this assertion through two experiments providing fuel economy information to new vehicle shoppers. Results show zero statistical or economic effect on average fuel economy of vehicles purchased. In the context of a simple optimal policy model, the estimates suggest that current and proposed US fuel economy standards are significantly more stringent than needed to address the classes of imperfect information and inattention addressed by our interventions.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20170019
