Consumer gains from product variety underestimated by a factor of 6.
The article improves a method to estimate how much people change their buying habits when prices change. By using better techniques, the study found that previous estimates were too high by 35%. This means that consumers actually benefit more from having more choices than previously thought. The study looked at US import data from 1993 to 2007 and found that the benefits of product variety were underestimated by a factor of 6.