We use data on the enrollment decisions of federal annuitants to estimate the influence of publicized ratings on health plan choice. We focus on the impact of ratings disseminated by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and use our estimates to calculate the value of the...

This study seeks to establish the empirical importance of price dispersion due to costly consumer search by examining retail prices for prescription drugs. Posted prices in two geographically distinct markets are shown to vary considerably across pharmacies within the same market, even after one...

Can negative information about a product increase sales, and if so, when? Although popular wisdom suggests that "any publicity is good publicity," prior research has demonstrated only downsides to negative press. Negative reviews or word of mouth, for example, have been found to hurt product...

"The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this. You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email. We study the impact of mandatory calorie posting on consumers' purchase decisions, using detailed data from Starbucks. We find that...