Website Development as a Credence Good: A Field Experiment
| Název práce v češtině: | Tvorba webových stránek jako “Credence Good”: Experiment |
|---|---|
| Název v anglickém jazyce: | Website Development as a Credence Good: A Field Experiment |
| Klíčová slova: | "Credence goods", diskriminace, tvorba webových stránek, "field" experiment, předražování, profesionální služby. |
| Klíčová slova anglicky: | Credence goods, discrimination, website development, field experiment, overcharging, expert services. |
| Akademický rok vypsání: | 2018/2019 |
| Typ práce: | bakalářská práce |
| Jazyk práce: | angličtina |
| Ústav: | Institut ekonomických studií (23-IES) |
| Vedoucí / školitel: | doc. PhDr. Julie Chytilová, Ph.D. |
| Řešitel: | skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem |
| Datum přihlášení: | 28.05.2019 |
| Datum zadání: | 28.05.2019 |
| Datum a čas obhajoby: | 09.06.2020 09:00 |
| Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: | 05.05.2020 |
| Datum proběhlé obhajoby: | 09.06.2020 |
| Oponenti: | Mgr. Dominika Špolcová |
| Kontrola URKUND: | |
| Seznam odborné literatury |
| Balafoutas L., A. Beck, R. Kerschbamer, M. Sutter, What Drives Taxi Drivers? A Field Experiment on Fraud in a Market for Credence Goods, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 80, Issue 3, July 2013, Pages 876–891, https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rds049
Darby, Michael R. and E. Karni, "Free Competition and the Optimal Amount of Fraud," The Journal of Law and Economics 16, no. 1 (Apr., 1973): 67-88. Domenighetti, G., Casabianca, A., Gutzwiller, F, and Martinoli, S. "Revisiting the Most Informed Consumer of Surgical Services." International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, Vol. 9 (1993), pp. 505-513. Dulleck, U. and R. Kerchbamer (2006): “On Doctors, Mechanics, and Computer Specialists: The Economics of Credence Goods,” Journal of Economic Literature, 44(1), 5–42. Dulleck, U., Kerschbamer, R., and Sutter, M. (2009). The Economics of Credence Goods: On the Role of Liability, Verifiability, Reputation and Competition. National Centre for Econometric Research, NCER Working Paper Series. Emons, W.. “Credence Goods and Fraudulent Experts.” The RAND Journal of Economics, vol. 28, no. 1, 1997, pp. 107–119. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2555942. Gottschalk, F., M. Wanda and W. Christian, Health Services As Credence Goods: A Field Experiment (October 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3036573 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3036573 Rasch, A. and Waibel, C. (2018), What Drives Fraud in a Credence Goods Market? – Evidence from a Field Study. Oxf Bull Econ Stat, 80: 605-624. doi:10.1111/obes.12204 Wolinsky, Asher. “Competition in a Market for Informed Experts' Services.” The RAND Journal of Economics, vol. 24, no. 3, 1993, pp. 380–398. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2555964. |
| Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce |
| In my thesis, I would like to research the market for website design and development. The IT firms are usually described with positive adjectives like creativity and efficiency, but are those innovative firms also non-discriminating and honest with their customers?
Credence good is a type of good, where the true value cannot be evaluated by the customer even after consumption due to information asymmetry (Darbi and Karni 1973). The IT firms are not only providing the actual development of websites but they are also in the role of the consultants offering expert services for the whole process, allowing the behaviour of fraudulent expertise (Emons 1997), overtreatment or overcharging (Dulleck et al. 2011). My thesis would examine Czech IT firms and their services from the point of credence goods. Research questions asked in the thesis are whether the IT firms are price discriminating and charge differently the customers according to the gender or the technical background of the client. Contribution My thesis broadens the topic of credence goods in the context of the market of website design and development, which is a crucial part of the IT industry. The research examines whether the Czech IT firms are taking advantage of information asymmetry and expert knowledge to price discriminate clients according to gender or technical background. The thesis follows many other field experiments, wherein there were under scrutiny taxi drivers (Balafoutas et al. 2013), car repair shops (Rasch and Waibel 2018), or dentists (Gottschalk et al. 2019). In these field experiments there were introduced pieces of evidence on how different customers or patients are manipulated, defrauded or overtreated. My thesis brings evidence on whether the market for website development is prone to similar behaviour. Methodology In the practical part, I am going to carry out an experiment, in which I approach a selected sample of Czech IT firms with potential contracts for website development by email. To answer my research question I will change attributes for randomly selected firms, those attributes will consist of four categories: male/female with a technical background, male/female without a technical background. The main information I expect from the companies is hourly wage and an approximate estimate of hours spent on development (approximate total price). I will then compare if there is a statistically significant relationship between price of the website development and gender or technical abilities of the client. Outline 1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. Theoretical part 4. Experimental part 5. Main results 6. Discussion 7. Conclusion |