An experimental analysis of gender discrimination in a credence goods market

Field economic interactions always involve mutual knowledge about the distinctive personal characteristics of economic players. In particular, anecdotal evidence that female consumers being more likely defrauded in markets for car repair motivates the present study. In a 2 x 4 design, we experimentally investigated how (i) displaying information about the counterpart's gender and (ii) framing instructions that emphasize a specific car repair market context affect outcomes in markets for credence goods. A two-player game in four steps reproduced the conditions under which credence goods are provided. Overall, our analysis suggests that both market context and gender are of fundamental importance to explain the under-provision dimension of fraud in such markets.