Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: The Social Dimension of Quality

为什么消费者愿意为品牌产品比非品牌产品支付更多的钱，即使两者具有相同的属性。本博士论文研究经济学（DDRIE）研究项目将运用经济学理论和实验方法来研究产品的社会网络价值来源。研究人员认为，人们花更多的钱购买一种产品是为了表明自己的声望，或者是因为他们敬仰的人会消费这种产品。研究人员将收集一些进口和国产消费品的数据来验证这一理论。这种对产品价值的社会学习方法的结果具有重要的政策含义：它可以帮助企业在国内和国外销售他们的产品。其次，通过帮助从社会学习来源中分离出社会互动价值来源，它为生产者有效地定位产品提供了指导。因此，这项研究的结果有助于经济增长，增加就业，改善美国人的福祉。这个项目使用一个实验游戏来研究社会互动如何影响消费者对他们购买的商品价值的感知。本文基于社会网络信号和社会学习，提出了产品质量的内生网络依赖定义，并建立了一个模型来解释这种社会信号的价值决定。主要假设是，对产品的需求部分是由消费者表明地位的愿望决定的，或者是因为产品被有抱负的同龄人消费。然后，研究人员将使用调查和实验方法在一组商品上验证这一假设。这一创新的DDRIE结果对IO、发展经济学和贸易文献做出了重大贡献，并为研究人员在建模需求时认真考虑社会信号指明了道路。该项目的结果将有助于研究人员区分社会学习、共享效用和社会信号。这个研究项目的结果对消费者和生产者都有政策意义。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Why do consumers willingly pay more for brand name products compared to non-branded products even though the two have the same attributes. This doctoral dissertation research in economics (DDRIE) research project will use economic theory and experimental methods to investigate the social network source of value for a product. The researchers argue that people pay more for a product to signal prestige or because people they look up to consume that product. The researchers will collect data on a number imported and domestically produced consumer goods to test this theory. The results of this social learning approach to product value has important policy implications: it could help businesses to market their products both domestically and abroad. Second, by helping to disentangle social interaction sources of value from the social learning source, it provides a guide to producers in targeting their products effectively. The results of this research therefore contributes to economic growth, increased employment, and improves the wellbeing of Americans. This project uses an experimental game to study how social interactions affect consumers’ perception of the value of goods they buy. The proposal develops an endogenous network-dependent definition of product quality based on social network signaling and social learning and develops a model to explain this social signaling value determination. The main hypothesis is that the demand for a product is partly determined by the consumer’s desire to signal status or because the product is consumed by aspirational peers. The researchers will then use both survey and experimental methods to test this hypothesis on a set of goods. The results of this innovative DDRIE make significant contributions to the IO, development economics, and trade literatures as well as point the way for researchers to seriously consider social signaling when modeling the demand. The result of the project will help researchers distinguish social leaning from shared utility and social signaling. The results of this research project has policy implications for both consumers and producers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.