We study cheap talk by firms and responses by their consumers, focusing on unverifiable promises of charitable donations on eBay during 2005–2006. Cheap talk listings have lower sales probabilities but sell at higher prices when successful. The negative relationship between cheap talk and sales is concentrated in the months following Hurricane Katrina, a time when verifiable and unverifiable charity listings increased dramatically. Finally, we show that cheap talk sellers have lower quality ratings than those making verifiable donations. Our results suggest that buyers (justifiably) avoid cheap talk listings when credible quality signals are available, thus limiting the extent of cheap talk.

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廉价谈话会影响市场结果吗？来自易趣的证据

我们研究了公司的廉价言论和消费者的反应，重点关注 2005 年至 2006 年期间 eBay 上无法核实的慈善捐赠承诺。便宜的谈话清单具有较低的销售概率，但成功后以较高的价格出售。廉价谈话和销售之间的负面关系集中在卡特里娜飓风之后的几个月里，这段时间可验证和不可验证的慈善上市急剧增加。最后，我们表明廉价谈话卖家的质量评级低于那些进行可验证捐赠的卖家。我们的结果表明，当有可靠的质量信号时，买家（有理由地）避免廉价谈话列表，从而限制廉价谈话的范围。