Time poverty and price dispersion: Do time poor individuals pay more?

Abstract

Although detailed analyses are available, little is said about the consequences of time poverty. A possible new implication is analysed within this article: The author tests whether time poor individuals compare less between prices, therefore do not identify ‘bargains’ or ‘rip-offs’ and pay in average more for identical products and services. Using data drawn from the German Time Use Survey 2001/02 and the German Sample Survey of Income and Expenditure 2003, instrumental variables estimations are arranged to account for an expected bias in ordinary least squares estimations and to catch the causal effect of time poverty on the paid prices per good.