The Role of Knowledge in Choice, Valuation, and Outcomes for Multi-Attribute Goods

摘要

Though the number of choices that individuals routinely must make has proliferated, comparatively little attention has been paid in the economics literature tc consumer - compared to expert - knowledge, and its rok in facilitating valuation and affecting choice outcomes. Ir this article, I review relevant work in economics, and ther focus on research on knowledge that has used wine as the object of interest. Psychologists and sensory scientists hav? studied the role of wine expertise in sensory perceptior and categorization, and I review this literature to sugges how knowledge might also affect valuation and choice ir the wine market. I finish by describing three recent studies on the role of knowledge in consumer valuation, informa don use, and choice outcomes in the American wine mar ket. All three studies provide strong evidence tha consumer knowledge is an important variable to considei in markets for differentiated products. Knowledge allow' people to make greater use of objective label informatior when valuing wine in an experimental auction context with high knowledge participants updating their bid; more after participants received new information. In c field experiment, we find that high knowledge consumer' derive greater value when selecting wines from a substan rial inventory than do low knowledge consumers.