Citation

Lupton S. Camb. J. Econ. 2005; 29(3): 399-421.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Cambridge Political Economy Society, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/cje/bei009

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new category of goods, 'indeterminate goods', which will be compared with the classical framework of experience, search and credence goods (Nelson, 1970; Darby and Karni, 1973). This concept sheds new light on the nature and status of quality uncertainty through the following hypothesis: uncertainty about the product's quality can be shared by all agents of the market, and this uncertainty can be non-neutral and disrupt the market. We identify three types of shared uncertainty about the product's characteristics and the corresponding problems that can arise: shared uncertainty due to the emergence of a product (Hirschman, 1974), shared uncertainty concerning the past of a product (basing ourselves on the art market), and finally shared uncertainty regarding the future impacts of a product, through empirical data on product safety.