Do-Not-Call Registry and Marketing Solicitations in Hong Kong

Description

This project studies consumer response to marketing solicitations and has three parts. Part one involves a theoretical analysis that addresses the endogenous tradeoff among consumer gains from marketing solicitations, their loss of privacy, the costs to them of taking avoidance actions, and sellers’ marketing costs. More importantly, the welfare implications of various public policies will be derived, such as imposing a solicitation tax or encouraging consumers to adopt avoidance measures. In part two, the theory will be tested empirically using the USA do-not-call registry data. This allows the theoretical findings and public policy implications to be validated in a natural setting. Through this empirical analysis, consumer segments that are more likely to sign up for such a registry will be identified, and the net benefit that the registry brings to the society will be estimated. Finally, part three studies the demographic profile of Hong Kong, and compares it with the profile of the USA. The earlier analysis will be extended to examine if a similar do-not-call registry, or other public policy measures (e.g., setting up a do-not-spam registry or imposing solicitation taxes), would benefit Hong Kong.