Exit, Tweets, and Loyalty

Abstract

Hirschman’s Exit, Voice, and Loyalty highlights the role of “voice” when individuals confront an unexpected deterioration in quality. Yet, voice has received little attention. To motivate our empirical analysis, we develop a simple model of voice as the equilibrium of a relational contract between customers and firms. We use data on 4 million tweets to or about US airlines to study the relationship between quality, voice, and market structure. Voice increases when quality deteriorates. This relationship is greater for airlines that operate a large share of flights in a market. Supplemental analyses support a relational contracting role for voice. (JEL D83, L15, L82, L93)