Unavailability and the Evaluation of Goods

Abstract

In this article, the authors summarize several views on how consumers react to the unavailability of consumer goods. The focus of the article is on how psychological theories can be used to enrich economic demand theory and, more specifically, the understanding of the relationship of availability characteristics and consumer preference. The authors discuss the different forms and causes for limited availability and how they affect the evaluation of goods. They review economic-psychological theories, such as reactance theory, frustration theory, commodity theory, and behavioral cost theory, and recent research findings to come to an enrichment of the traditional, i.e., macroeconomic view on how consumers evaluate goods of limited availability. Copyright 1995 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG