Arbeitspapier

An experiment for regulatory policy on broadband speed advertising

Identifying whether hyperbolic advertising claims influence consumers is important for consumer protection, but differentiating mere "puffery" from misleading advertising is not straightforward. We conducted a pre-registered experiment to determine whether pseudo-technical advertising claims about broadband speed bias consumer choice. We tested whether these claims lead consumers to (i) make suboptimal choices and (ii) choose faster, more expensive broadband packages than they otherwise would. We also tested a potential policy response, consisting of consumer information on broadband speeds and how they are advertised. One-in-five consumers chose a provider advertising "lightning fast" broadband over another offering the same speed at a cheaper price. Puffery also led consumers to choose faster, more expensive packages than consumers who saw no such claims. The information intervention (i) decreased the proportion of suboptimal decisions, (ii) increased the likelihood that consumers switched package, and (iii) improved understanding of speed descriptions. The findings suggest that a relatively soft regulatory intervention may benefit broadband consumers.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: ESRI Working Paper ; No. 641

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
Consumer Protection
Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: General‡
Advertising
Marketing and Advertising: Government Policy and Regulation
Thema
decision-making
behavioural economics
consumer protection
telecommunications

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Timmons, Shane
McElvaney, Terence J.
Lunn, Pete
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
(wo)
Dublin
(wann)
2019

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Timmons, Shane
  • McElvaney, Terence J.
  • Lunn, Pete
  • The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

Entstanden

  • 2019

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