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Imahie, Satoshi
(2026)
Experience Premium in Consumer Search: Evidence from Drivers’ Refueling Behavior.
TSE Working Paper, n. 26-1757
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Abstract
Why do uninformed consumers pay more? A long-standing answer is market unfamiliarity. Yet how much it contributes to information frictions, and whether it fades with experience, have not been directly measured. I answer these questions using millions of fuel purchases by Japanese drivers. Identification exploits two kinds of variation in familiarity, from travel and relocation. Comparing the same driver across markets, I find that unfamiliarity accounts for 62% of the price gap between informed and uninformed consumers, while persistent individual differences explain the rest. This unfamiliarity-driven gap (the experience premium) declines with repeated purchases, consistent with learning in consumer search.
| Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Date: | June 2026 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Consumer Search, Information Friction, State Dependence, Learning, Gasoline |
| Subjects: | B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE |
| Divisions: | TSE-R (Toulouse) |
| Site: | UT1 |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Jun 2026 06:20 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2026 06:20 |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:tse-fr.eu:131884 |
| URI: | https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/53778 |
