How limiting deceptive practices harms consumers
研究显示，在存在高低质量卖家的体验品市场中，限制低质量卖家的欺骗性广告反而可能降低消费者福利，并分析了最优威慑规则。
There are two competing sellers of an experience good, one offers high quality, one low. The low‐quality seller can engage in deceptive advertising, potentially fooling a buyer into thinking the product is better than it is. Although deceptive advertising might seem to harm the buyer, we show that he could be better off when the low‐quality seller can engage in deceptive advertising than not. We characterize the optimal deterrence rule that a regulatory agency seeking to punish deceptive practices should adopt. We show that greater protection against deceptive practices does not necessarily improve the buyer welfare.