Faculty of Business Seminar Series / Burçin Güçlü

Title: Do sharing economy firms refuse to share? Consumer safety and information asymmetries

Abstract: This study investigates the effect of information asymmetries on consumer safety in the context of sharing economy platforms. Bearing in mind the negative effect of information asymmetries on consumer welfare and consumer safety via moral hazard, adverse selection, and monopoly power, we aim to understand whether sharing economy platforms decrease consumer safety through asymmetric information. In our empirical analysis, we use i) survey data to measure the effect of increased safety information on consumer choice, i) secondary data to supplement our initial data with descriptive information on safety amenities, and iii) primary data in order to assess a deterministic relationship between customer value, lack of safety amenities and information asymmetry. Our results indicate that consumers choose and attach more value to safer short-term accommodation. We share further implications of our study for (government) intervention to counteract asymmetry of information, and company policy to insure consumer safety in short-term accommodation sharing.

Place: Meeting Room AB2-345