IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jrinsu/v89y2022i3p697-723.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reducing informational asymmetry impacts choices and improves safety: An evaluation of automobile crash tests

Author

Listed:
  • Damien Sheehan‐Connor

Abstract

Vehicle crash tests mitigate an informational market failure and provide substantial benefits to consumers. Consumers cannot accurately assess vehicle safety leading automakers to provide it suboptimally. Crash tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety represent an attempt to mitigate this market failure. This paper presents evidence that automakers responded by producing safer vehicles and that consumers increased purchases of highly rated vehicles. A novel identification strategy using the year of vehicle redesign is used to evaluate the tests' safety impact. A lower‐bound estimate of program benefits is $3000 per vehicle resulting in an annual reduction of 1650 fatalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Damien Sheehan‐Connor, 2022. "Reducing informational asymmetry impacts choices and improves safety: An evaluation of automobile crash tests," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(3), pages 697-723, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:89:y:2022:i:3:p:697-723
    DOI: 10.1111/jori.12375
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jori.12375
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jori.12375?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leemore Dafny & David Dranove, 2008. "Do report cards tell consumers anything they don't already know? The case of Medicare HMOs," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(3), pages 790-821, September.
    2. Korenok, Oleg & Hoffer, George E. & Millner, Edward L., 2010. "Non-price determinants of automotive demand: Restyling matters most," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 1282-1289, December.
    3. McCarthy, Patrick S, 1996. "Market Price and Income Elasticities of New Vehicles Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(3), pages 543-547, August.
    4. McCarthy, Patrick S, 1990. "Consumer Demand for Vehicle Safety: An Empirical Study," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(3), pages 530-543, July.
    5. W. Bentley MacLeod, 2007. "Reputations, Relationships, and Contract Enforcement," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 595-628, September.
    6. David Dranove & Ginger Zhe Jin, 2010. "Quality Disclosure and Certification: Theory and Practice," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 935-963, December.
    7. Viscusi, W Kip, 1993. "The Value of Risks to Life and Health," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1912-1946, December.
    8. Winston, Clifford & Mannering, Fred, 1984. "Consumer Demand for Automobile Safety," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 316-319, May.
    9. William W. Gould & Jeffrey Pitblado & Brian Poi, 2010. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation with Stata," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, edition 4, number ml4.
    10. Zhu, S. & Layde, P.M. & Guse, C.E. & Laud, P.W. & Pintar, F. & Nirula, R. & Hargarten, S., 2006. "Obesity and risk for death due to motor vehicle crashes," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(4), pages 734-739.
    11. Jin, Ginger Zhe & Sorensen, Alan T., 2006. "Information and consumer choice: The value of publicized health plan ratings," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 248-275, March.
    12. Ginger Zhe Jin & Phillip Leslie, 2003. "The Effect of Information on Product Quality: Evidence from Restaurant Hygiene Grade Cards," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 409-451.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ericson, Keith M. Marzilli & Starc, Amanda, 2016. "How product standardization affects choice: Evidence from the Massachusetts Health Insurance Exchange," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 71-85.
    2. Susan Lu & Huaxia Rui, 2014. "Can We Trust Online Physician Ratings? Evidence from Cardiac Surgeons in Florida," Working Papers 14-01, NET Institute.
    3. Susan Feng Lu, 2012. "Multitasking, Information Disclosure, and Product Quality: Evidence from Nursing Homes," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 673-705, September.
    4. Kim, Tami & Martin, Daniel, 2021. "What do consumers learn from regulator ratings? Evidence from restaurant hygiene quality disclosures," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 234-249.
    5. Tae Jung Yoon, 2020. "Quality Information Disclosure and Patient Reallocation in the Healthcare Industry: Evidence from Cardiac Surgery Report Cards," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(3), pages 636-662, May.
    6. Michael Ollinger & John Bovay, 2020. "Producer Response to Public Disclosure of Food‐Safety Information," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 186-201, January.
    7. Miguel Duro & Jonas Heese & Gaizka Ormazabal, 2019. "The effect of enforcement transparency: Evidence from SEC comment-letter reviews," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 780-823, September.
    8. McCarthy, Ian M., 2018. "Quality disclosure and the timing of insurers’ adjustments: Evidence from medicare advantage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 13-26.
    9. Luca, Michael & Smith, Jonathan, 2015. "Strategic disclosure: The case of business school rankings," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 17-25.
    10. Jane Friesen & Mohsen Javdani & Justin Smith & Simon Woodcock, 2012. "How do school ‘report cards’ affect school choice decisions?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(2), pages 784-807, May.
    11. Whaley, Christopher M., 2019. "Provider responses to online price transparency," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 241-259.
    12. Vincze, János, 2010. "Miért és mitől védjük a fogyasztókat?. Aszimmetrikus információ és/vagy korlátozott racionalitás [Asymmetric information and/or bounded rationality: why are consumers protected and from what?]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 725-752.
    13. Avi Dor & William Encinosa & Kathleen Carey, 2020. "Hospital performance standards and medical pricing: The impact of information disclosure in cardiac care," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 492-515, July.
    14. repec:bla:ecinqu:v:51:y:2013:i:3:p:1809-1828 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Tahir Andrabi & Jishnu Das & Asim Ijaz Khwaja, 2017. "Report Cards: The Impact of Providing School and Child Test Scores on Educational Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1535-1563, June.
    16. Bovay, John, 2021. "Moral hazard under discrete information disclosure: Evidence from food-safety inspections," 2021 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 3-5, 2021, San Diego, California 307948, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. David Butler & Daniel Read, 2021. "Unravelling Theory: Strategic (Non-) Disclosure of Online Ratings," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-20, September.
    18. John Bovay, 2025. "Shaming, stringency, and shirking: Evidence from food‐safety inspections," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 107(1), pages 152-180, January.
    19. Alexander E. Saak, 2017. "The Value of Delegated Quality Control," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 309-335, June.
    20. Iizuka, Toshiaki & Nishiyama, Katsuhiko & Chen, Brian & Eggleston, Karen, 2021. "False alarm? Estimating the marginal value of health signals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    21. Ginger Zhe Jin & Jungmin Lee, 2018. "A Tale of Repetition: Lessons from Florida Restaurant Inspections," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 159-188.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:89:y:2022:i:3:p:697-723. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ariaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.