We investigate how the status and functional benefits of cars’ brands lose value over time. Theoretically, we show that brands with a higher status, or that appeal to status-conscious consumers, exhibit steeper price decline over time. Empirically, we take advantage of the phenomenon of twin cars – pairs of car models that are nearly identical from a structural and mechanical standpoint, but that are sold under differing brand names – to disentangle the effects of physical wear and tear, which should impact both the premium brand and the corresponding standard brand similarly; and time-related price decline, which should affect each brand differently. The main result is that a premium car’s price declines much faster than that of the corresponding standard car (controlling for physical condition, mileage, and initial price). This result suggests that status declines faster than do functional attributes, and status seekers tend to replace their cars earlier.

我们调查汽车品牌的地位和功能优势如何随着时间的推移而失去价值。从理论上讲，我们表明，随着时间的推移，具有较高地位的品牌，或者对有地位的消费者具有吸引力的品牌，价格下降幅度更大。根据经验，我们利用双车现象——从结构和机械角度来看几乎相同但以不同品牌销售的车型——来解开物理磨损的影响，这应该会影响两者高档品牌和相应的标准品牌类似；以及与时间相关的价格下降，这应该会对每个品牌产生不同的影响。主要结果是高档车的价格下降速度比相应的标准车快得多（控制身体状况、里程和初始价格）。