IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v29y2008i1p1-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Warranties as a device to extract rent from low-risk users of a product

Author

Listed:
  • David Hakes

    (Department of Economics, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614, USA)

  • Dongsoo Shin

    (Department of Economics, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA)

Abstract

We develop a simple model that provides a new rationale for why a monopolist should bundle its product with a warranty even when all parties are risk neutral. In our model, a risk-neutral monopolist faces two types of risk-neutral consumers-low-risk users that are unlikely to cause product failure and high-risk users that are more likely to cause product failure. We find that when the firm fails to provide a warranty, a low-risk user acquires a strictly positive rent by pretending to be a high-risk user and receiving a price discount. By imposing a warranty, however, the monopolist can increase the price to high-risk users, which in turn removes the incentive for a low-risk user to pretend to be a high-risk user, and the firm successfully extracts rent from the low-risk user. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • David Hakes & Dongsoo Shin, 2008. "Warranties as a device to extract rent from low-risk users of a product," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 1-7.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:29:y:2008:i:1:p:1-7
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.1367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/mde.1367
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.1367?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. Matthews, Steven & Moore, John, 1987. "Monopoly Provision of Quality and Warranties: An Exploration in the Theory of Multidimensional Screening," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 441-467, March.
    2. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-483, December.
    3. Schmalensee, Richard, 1984. "Gaussian Demand and Commodity Bundling," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(1), pages 211-230, January.
    4. Russell Cooper & Thomas W. Ross, 1985. "Product Warranties and Double Moral Hazard," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(1), pages 103-113, Spring.
    5. Schmalensee, Richard, 1982. "Commodity Bundling by Single-Product Monopolies," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 67-71, April.
    6. Whinston, Michael D, 1990. "Tying, Foreclosure, and Exclusion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 837-859, September.
    7. Emons, Winand, 1989. "The Theory of Warranty Contracts," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 43-57.
    8. Thomas J. Holmes, 1984. "Monopoly Bundling of Warranty and Quality When Quality is Unobservable," Discussion Papers 612, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    9. Emons, Winand, 1989. "On the Limitation of Warranty Duration," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 287-301, March.
    10. Mann, D.P. & Wissink, J.P., 1989. "Hidden Actions And Hidden Characteristics In Warranty Markets," Department of Economics Working Papers 133, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    11. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1977. "Monopoly, Non-linear Pricing and Imperfect Information: The Insurance Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 407-430.
    12. Michael Rothschild & Joseph Stiglitz, 1976. "Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: An Essay on the Economics of Imperfect Information," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 629-649.
    13. V. Padmanabhan & Ram C. Rao, 1993. "Warranty Policy and Extended Service Contracts: Theory and an Application to Automobiles," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(3), pages 230-247.
    14. Kubo, Yuji, 1986. "Quality uncertainty and guarantee: A case of strategic market segmentation by a monopolist," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1063-1079, October.
    15. Michael Spence, 1977. "Consumer Misperceptions, Product Failure and Producer Liability," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 561-572.
    16. R. Preston McAfee & John McMillan & Michael D. Whinston, 1989. "Multiproduct Monopoly, Commodity Bundling, and Correlation of Values," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 371-383.
    17. Nancy A. Lutz, 1989. "Warranties as Signals under Consumer Moral Hazard," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(2), pages 239-255, Summer.
    18. William James Adams & Janet L. Yellen, 1976. "Commodity Bundling and the Burden of Monopoly," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(3), pages 475-498.
    19. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    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. Lutz, Nancy A. & Padmanabhan, V., 1998. "Warranties, extended warranties, and product quality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 463-493, July.
    2. Junhong Chu & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2009. "Quantifying the Economic Value of Warranties in the U.S. Server Market," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(1), pages 99-121, 01-02.
    3. Lei, Yong & Liu, Qian & Shum, Stephen, 2017. "Warranty pricing with consumer learning," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 263(2), pages 596-610.
    4. Lázár Ede, 2014. "Quantifying the Economic Value of Warranties: A Survey," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 2(1), pages 75-94, October.
    5. Jianhua Ma & Xingzheng Ai & Wen Yang & Yanchun Pan, 2019. "Decentralization versus coordination in competing supply chains under retailers’ extended warranties," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 275(2), pages 485-510, April.
    6. Padmanabhan, V, 1995. "Usage Heterogeneity and Extended Warranties," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 33-53, Spring.
    7. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, September.
    8. Tatyana Chesnokova, 2007. "Return policies, market outcomes, and consumer welfare," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(1), pages 296-316, February.
    9. Alena Podaneva & Pierre Picard, 2023. "Facility Management Services in UK Hospitals: in-house or outsourcing," DEM Discussion Paper Series 23-15, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    10. Philip H. Dybvig & Nancy A. Lutz, 1993. "Warranties, Durability, and Maintenance: Two-sided Moral Hazard in a Continuous-Time Model," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 575-597.
    11. Akifumi Ishihara & Noriyuki Yanagawa, 2013. "Dark Sides of Patent Pools with Compulsory Independent Licensing," CARF F-Series CARF-F-318, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    12. Sheikhzadeh, Mehdi & Elahi, Ehsan, 2013. "Product bundling: Impacts of product heterogeneity and risk considerations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 209-222.
    13. Aidan Hollis, 1996. "Exclusivity Restrictions in Markets with Adverse Selection: The Case of Extended Warranties," Working Papers ecpap-96-03, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    14. Almeida Costa, Luis & Dierickx, Ingemar, 2002. "Licensing and bundling," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 251-267, February.
    15. Howell, Bronwyn E & Potgieter, Petrus H., 2017. "Competition and vertical/agglomeration effects in media mergers: bagging bundle benefits," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168487, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    16. Crampes, Claude & Hollander, Abraham, 2005. "Product specification, multi-product screening and bundling: the case of pay TV," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 35-59, January.
    17. Gayer, Amit & Shy, Oz, 2016. "A welfare evaluation of tying strategies," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 623-637.
    18. Cao, Zixia, 2022. "Brand equity, warranty costs, and firm value," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1166-1185.
    19. Howell, Bronwyn E. & Potgieter, Petrus H., 2019. "Bagging bundle benefits in broadband and media mergers: Lessons from Sky/Vodafone for antitrust analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 128-139.
    20. Andrea Mantovani, 2013. "The Strategic Effect of Bundling: A New Perspective," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 42(1), pages 25-43, February.

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:29:y:2008:i:1:p:1-7. 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: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.