Consumer Law

How Much Do Consumers Value Not Getting Telemarketing Calls?

By Jeff Sovern

In a paper titled "On the Value of Privacy from Telemarketing: Evidence from the 'Do Not Call' Registry," and available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1000533, Ivan P.L. Png of the National University of Singapore, estimates the value of privacy at a surprisingly low $8.25 per year.  Here's the abstract:
   

Despite tremendous debate and policy interest, there has been relatively little research into the issue of how much individuals value their privacy. In this paper, I estimate the demand for the value of privacy from telemarketing as provided by the federal "do not call" registry. From the demand curve, I compute two estimates of the household value of privacy: a lower bound of $3.22 per year, and a best estimate of $8.25 per year.  The telemarketing industry must provide consumers with at least this much expected consumer surplus to persuade them not to conceal themselves through the "do not call" registry.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on January 19, 2008 (boomark / email).