News

28.05.2013

ZEW policy brief Published: Comparing Online Shopping Prices Is Worth the Effort

Internet shopping is becoming more and more popular. On price comparison sites users can obtain helpful advice, where to find the best price. A study conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim and the University of Linz within the framework of the SEEK research programme shows that price comparisons are worth the effort. The results show that already ten additional competitors in the market offering the same product reduce the mark-up of the cheapest provider by 1.7 percentage points.