Unwillingness to Pay for Privacy: A Field Experiment
12 Pages Posted: 6 Jul 2010
Abstract
We measure willingness to pay for privacy in a field experiment. Participants were given the choice to buy a maximum of one DVD from one of two online stores. One store consistently required more sensitive personal data than the other, but otherwise the stores were identical. In one treatment, DVDs were one Euro cheaper at the store requesting more personal information, and almost all buyers chose the cheaper store. Surprisingly, in the second treatment when prices were identical, participants bought from both shops equally often.
Keywords: privacy, willingness to pay, field experiments
JEL Classification: C93, D12
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Beresford, Alastair and Kübler, Dorothea F. and Preibusch, Sören, Unwillingness to Pay for Privacy: A Field Experiment. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1634484 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1634484
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