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Abstract We employ an online randomized lab experiment to estimate the impact of a company's bankruptcy status on consumer demand for that company's products and services. We identify each participant's hypothetical willingness to pay for a product or service of a firm. We measure how that willingness to pay changes when we exogenously vary information about the firm's bankruptcy status. We employ an online randomized lab experiment to estimate the impact of a company's bankruptcy status on consumer demand for that company's products and services. We identify each participant's hypothetical willingness to pay for a product or service of a firm. We measure how that willingness to pay changes when we exogenously vary information about the firm's bankruptcy status and general condition.
Trial Start Date April 30, 2022 February 01, 2022
Last Published November 28, 2021 03:01 PM January 27, 2022 07:38 PM
Intervention (Public) Our interventions involve randomly providing participants with differing levels of information about a firm's bankruptcy status. The control group is told nothing. The baseline treatment group is told that the firm is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Supplemental treatment groups are told that the firm is bankrupt and also told additional information about that firm's bankruptcy. Our interventions involve randomly providing participants with differing levels of information about a firm's bankruptcy status and general condition. The control group is told nothing. The baseline treatment group is told that the firm is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Supplemental treatment groups are told that the firm is bankrupt and also told additional information about that firm's bankruptcy and general condition.
Intervention Start Date April 30, 2022 February 01, 2022
Primary Outcomes (End Points) Our key outcome variable is the willingness to pay for a product or service of a firm. Our experimental design exogenously varies information about the firm. Notably, we vary the firm's bankruptcy status. Our key outcome variable is the willingness to pay for a product or service of a firm. Our experimental design exogenously varies information about the firm. Notably, we vary the firm's bankruptcy status. We measure each participant's willingness to pay in ten hypothetical purchase decisions. We incentivize participants using the method of Kessler, Low, and Sullivan (2019).
Primary Outcomes (Explanation) We measure the willingness to pay for a firm B's product. We tell the participant how much an equivalent product costs at another firm A. We define the normalized willingness to pay as the ratio of the willingness to pay for firm B's product to the price of firm A's product. We truncate this value at 3, replacing values of the normalized willingness to pay that exceed 3 with the value 3 instead. We measure each participant's willingness to pay in ten hypothetical purchase decisions.
Experimental Design (Public) We identify each participant's willingness to pay for a product or service of a firm. We measure how that willingness to pay changes when we exogenously introduce information about the firm, including its bankruptcy status. We identify each participant's willingness to pay for a product or service of a firm. We measure how that willingness to pay changes when we exogenously introduce information about the firm, including its bankruptcy status. We measure each participant's willingness to pay in ten hypothetical purchase decisions. We incentivize participants using the method of Kessler, Low, and Sullivan (2019).
Planned Number of Clusters We expect approximately 1800 participants after applying our filters. We exclude individuals that fail attention checks. Because of these filters, and because of the nature of our online survey vendor, we cannot precisely control the number of participants. We exclude individuals that fail attention checks. We will continue to run the experiment until we have at least 100 observations, after excluding participants who fail attention checks, in each of our 16 treatment arms. Because of these filters, and because of the nature of our online survey vendor, we cannot precisely control the number of participants. Thus, while we hope for approximately 1600 participants, it is possible that we will end up with substantially more.
Planned Number of Observations We expect approximately 1800 participants after applying our filters. We exclude individuals that fail attention checks. Because of these filters, and because of the nature of our online survey vendor, we cannot precisely control the number of participants. We exclude individuals that fail attention checks. We will continue to run the experiment until we have at least 100 observations, after excluding participants who fail attention checks, in each of our 16 treatment arms. Because of these filters, and because of the nature of our online survey vendor, we cannot precisely control the number of participants. Thus, while we hope for approximately 1600 participants, it is possible that we will end up with substantially more.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms There are 100 individuals in each of 18 cells. The cells vary in the information provided and the industry of the hypothetical firm for which we ask follow up questions. As described above, there will be at least 100 individuals in each of 16 treatment arms. The treatment arms vary in the information provided and the industry of the hypothetical firm for which we ask follow-up survey questions.
Secondary Outcomes (End Points) We also measure participants' preferences for firms and beliefs about bankruptcy through additional survey questions.
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