American Economic Review Vol. 96 No. 1 2006

Advertising Content

Simon P. Anderson¹; Régis Renault²

¹ Department of Economics, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400182, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4128. · ² ThEMA, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, 33 Bd. du Port, 95011, Cergy Cedex, France and Institut Universitaire de France.

Abstract

Empirical evidence suggests that most advertisements contain little direct information. Many do not mention prices. We analyze a monopoly firm's choice of advertising content and the information disclosed to consumers. The firm advertises only product information, price information, or both, and prefers to convey only limited product information if possible. It is socially harmful to force it to provide full information if it has sufficient ability to parse the information imparted, nor does it help to restrict the information voluntarily provided.

DOI

10.1257/000282806776157632

Volume

96

Issue

1

Pages

93-113

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓