Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Pharmaceutical manufacturers are spending more than $2.5 billion annually in Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising in an attempt to educate consumers about prescription drugs. Unlike most other consumer goods, prescription drugs cannot be purchased directly by the consumer, and thus the goal of most DTC advertising is to influence consumers to talk to their healthcare providers about medications that they have seen in ads. Is this advertising effective? Who is most influenced by it, and how does reliance on mass versus interpersonal communication for health information affect attitudes and behaviors regarding DTC advertising?
Using data from a nationally representative survey of the U.S. population conducting by a professional polling organization (with a sample size of 3,000), this study uses structural equation modeling to answer the above questions and to explicate linkages among antecedents (age, gender, race, education, income, family structure), socializing agents (mass and interpersonal channels), and attitudes and behaviors regarding DTC advertising.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study examines how organizations construct and shape law and the meaning of compliance. In particular, I apply a new-institutionalist approach to study the interaction of courts, legislatures and private organizations in developing consumer-protection laws. A recent development in neo-institutional theories of law and organizations suggests that employment discrimination law becomes endogenous as judicial interpretations of anti-discrimination law mandates come to incorporate and rely on the presence of institutionalized compliance structures as evidence of non-discriminatory, fair treatment. Although this development is important, it is too limited. In this study, I show not only that endogeneity operates through the legislative as well as the judicial process, but also in the context of consumer warranty laws. Through a case study that examines case law as well as over thirty-five years of California’s legislative history regarding its consumer protection law, this study demonstrates how automobile manufacturers initially subject to tough and aggressive California consumer warranty protection laws devised internal dispute resolution grievance structures that the legislature subsequently incorporated into statutes and required consumers to use such structures prior to seeking relief in court. Further, I show how courts consistently defer to these private dispute resolution structures and in so, doing undermine consumer rights and perpetuate inequality in interactions between consumers and manufacturers. This paper concludes by positing that the endogeneity of law results in the “holsterization of rights,” i.e., the process whereby initially strong public rights are (1) re-defined, (2) confined, and (3) controlled by private organizations.

Publication Type: Paper/Poster Proposal
Abstract: Economic theory states that when consumers feel that their personal financial situation is poor they react by spending less, and when their personal financial situation is good they spend more. The reason for this is that economists believe that all economic trends tend to continue until some major situational event [e.g. job loss] reverses the direction of the trend.

By contrast, the “Gambler’s Fallacy” is the belief that everything in life is the product of random fluctuation; for example, if a coin comes up “heads” three times in a row, there is an increased likelihood that the next coin toss will come up “tails”. This attitude predicts that consumers who feel that their personal financial situation is poor right now will be likely to spend more, in anticipation of an improvement.
Michigan State University’s Office for Survey Research has conducted a quarterly survey of Michigan adult residents from 1994 to the present, amassing over 35,000 responses.

First order results – examining the change from quarter n to quarter n+1 and relating whether the change has been positive or negative to a measure of consumer spending in quarter n+2 – indicate that the Gambler’s Fallacy model is a better predictor of behavior than economic theory. In addition, this paper will present analyses of the length of trends in both consumer sentiment and the relation of absolute value of consumer sentiment to same-quarter and next-quarter spending.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Synopsis of Paper by Jacob Ziegel, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto,
For LSA Conference, Consumer Overindebtedness Programme, Berlin, July 25-28, 2007


Canada has the dubious distinction of having, in absolute numbers, the second highest number of consumer insolvencies in the Western hemisphere, only the number of consumer insolvencies in the US being higher. On a population rate basis, the rate of Canadian consumer insolvencies is now probably as high as the US rate.

For the past twenty years, consumer credit has been readily available to all segments of the Canadian population. There is also convincing evidence of a close correlation between the number of consumer insolvencies in Canada and the outstanding volume of consumer credit. Nevertheless, in addressing the phenomenon of consumer insolvencies and the search for cures, attention in Canada has focused almost entirely on the debtor’s behavior and the need to educate Canadian consumers about good budgeting practices and the prudent use of consumer credit. The contribution of creditors to consumer overindebtedness has been almost entirely ignored.

In response to this one-dimensional approach, my paper will address inter alia the following questions:

(1) The evidence in support of the proposition that the ready availability of consumer credit to all segments of the Canadian population has been an important contributing factor to the escalating number of consumer insolvencies;

(2) The political culture explaining the fact that up to now the focus in Canada has been almost entirely on the conduct of consumers as the authors of their own misfortunes and very little on the contributing role of credit grantors;

(3) To what extent existing Canadian insolvency and consumer credit laws have failed to encourage prudent credit practices by Canadian credit grantors, and what further steps can and should be taken to induce more responsible conduct on the part of the different classes of consumer credit grantors in Canada.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine how consumers’ general attitude toward Direct-to-Consumer-Advertising (DTCA) influences their drug inquiry and whether the relationship between attitude toward DTCA and drug inquiry is moderated by their perceived knowledge in health and medicine. A survey of 203 Midwestern residents showed that those with favorable views of DTCA were more likely to inquire and request an advertised drug they saw. However, the association was only significant for those with high perceived knowledge in health and medicine. When their perceived knowledge was low, despite positive views of DTCA, their intention to inquire and request a specific drug was not significantly increased.