Learning to Hoard: The Effects of Preexisting and Surprise Price-Gouging Regulation During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Learning to Hoard: The Effects of Preexisting and Surprise Price-Gouging Regulation During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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DOI：
10.1007/s10603-021-09493-1
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发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Roberts G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chakraborti R;Roberts G
理论表明，对价格监管引起的短缺的预期可能会促使家庭增加库存，从而加剧监管引起的短缺。我们通过网上购物搜索两种通常在商店购买的必需品来测试这一理论：洗手液和卫生纸。结合 (i) 哄抬物价监管类型的州际差异（预先存在、意外与无）、(ii) 其暂时交错实施，以及 (iii) COVID-19 大流行期间洗手液和卫生纸的需求激增，有助于确定不同哄抬物价监管对消费者搜索的影响。我们的结果与哄抬物价监管驱动的预期囤积行为一致。双重差异估计显示，已有监管的州在这两种产品的实施后搜索比例中增幅最大。使用最近邻匹配策略考虑实施的潜在内生性后发现，在大流行期间突然宣布新法规的州也比没有任何此类政策的州经历了激活后洗手液搜索比例的更大增长，但比先前存在法律的州所经历的增长要小。这些结果证实了有关监管引发的短缺预期后果的理论预测，并为当前围绕哄抬物价法影响的政策辩论提供了信息。从根本上说，我们的结果表明，随着经验揭示政策的效果，对政策的行为反应也会发生变化，而这种演变可能会影响政策的福利后果。在线版本包含可在 10.1007/s10603-021-09493-1 获取的补充材料。
Theory suggests anticipation of shortages stemming from price regulation can motivate households to stock up more and thereby aggravate the regulation-induced shortage. We test this theory on online shopping searches for two typically store-bought staples: hand sanitizer and toilet paper. Combining (i) interstate variation in type of price-gouging regulation—preexisting versus surprise versus none, (ii) their temporally staggered implementation, and (iii) the demand surges for hand sanitizer and toilet paper during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitates identifying the impacts of different price-gouging regulation on consumer searches. Our results are consistent with price-gouging regulation–driven anticipatory hoarding. Difference-in-differences estimates reveal that states with preexisting-regulation experience the largest increases in post-implementation search proportions for both products. Accounting for potential endogeneity of implementation using a nearest-neighbor matching strategy reveals states that make surprise announcements of new regulation during the pandemic also experience larger increases in post-activation hand sanitizer search proportions than states without any such policy, but smaller increases than what preexisting-law states experience. These results corroborate the theoretical predictions about consequences of regulation-induced anticipation of shortages and inform the current policy debate surrounding impacts of price-gouging laws. Fundamentally, our results indicate behavioural responses to policy evolve as experience reveals the effects of the policy, and this evolution might influence the welfare consequences of the policy. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10603-021-09493-1.
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