Is the Price Right? The Role of Economic Tradeoffs in Explaining Reactions to Price Surges

We thank participants in seminars at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Loughborough University, Sao Paulo School of Economics, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, George Washington University, IMT Lucca, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, University of Genova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US Naval Academy, University of Maryland, University of Sussex (SPRU), University of Toronto and University of Zurich and the CESIfo Workshop in Venice for their comments. The study received approval from the Research Ethics Board at the University of Toronto (protocol 12177) and the Homewood Institutional Review Board at Johns Hopkins University (protocol 00040280); the registration number at the American Economic Association’s Registry for Randomized Controlled Trials is AEARCTR-0007531. Financial support for this research comes from the Johns Hopkins Business of Health Initiative (HBHI), the Johns Hopkins “Catalyst Award,” and the Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy at the University of Toronto. The donation experiment was conducted only for research purposes, and does not represent an endorsement of the recipient organization by Johns Hopkins University, the University of Toronto, or by the authors of the study. Salwa Abdalla provided excellent research assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• April 20, 2022