Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/56852 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2011,044
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
Consumers make mistakes when facing complex purchasing decision problems but if at least some consumers choose only among offers that are easy to compare with others then firms will adopt common ways to present their offers and thus make choice easier (Gaudeul and Sugden, 2011). We design an original experiment to identify consumers' choice heuristics in the lab. Subjects are presented with menus of offers and do appear to favour offers that are easy to compare with others in the menu. While not all subjects do so, this is enough to deter firms from introducing spurious complexity in the way they present products.
Subjects: 
bounded rationality
cognitive limitations
common standards
consumer choice
experimental economics
heuristics
libertarian paternalism
pricing formats
spurious complexity
JEL: 
D83
L13
D18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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