UNSPECIFIED. (1996) The search for consistency in economic search. JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR & ORGANIZATION, 29 (2). pp. 311-321. ISSN 0167-2681

Abstract

Previous experimental work has discovered several high performing heuristic strategies in the search for the most economic price of a good, in situations where the purchaser has partial prior knowledge of the price distribution. It appeared previously, however, that individuals do not use a given search rule consistently. This paper describes a modified experimental framework that investigates this apparent inconsistency in search behaviour. Results are analysed at the individual level rather than in aggregate. The paper concludes that individuals do adopt consistent strategies subject to certain identified caveats. It is suggested that inconsistent behaviour is associated with decision difficulty, very low search costs, and subjects' intellectual ability. Moreover, it concludes that the strategy most frequently adopted is fairly crude and is not the best performing one.

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