Limited Attention to Search Costs in the Gasoline Retail Market: Evidence from a Choice Experiment on Consumer Willingness to Search
通过选择实验，研究美国汽油消费者是否对搜索低价所消耗的时间和汽油成本关注不足，发现认知成本导致忽视时间成本，且高估行驶中汽油消耗成本，从而损失消费者剩余。
We conduct a choice experiment to investigate whether U.S. gasoline consumers exhibit limited attention to the costs of searching for lower prices. When consumers search for prices as they drive, the search cost is a function of the amount of gasoline consumed while driving and the time spent searching for prices. We randomize the amount of information we provide the respondents to a survey about search costs in one of 3 ways: time, gasoline, or both. Results indicate that cognitive costs cause inattention to time costs. We also find that respondents overestimate the cost of the gasoline used while driving, thus forgoing consumer surplus.