Replication data for: A Quantitative Analysis of the Used-Car Market

We quantitatively investigate the allocative and welfare effects of secondary markets for cars. An important source of gains from trade in these markets is the heterogeneity in the willingness to pay for higher-quality (newer) goods, but transaction costs are an impediment to instantaneous trade. Calibration of the model successfully matches several aggregate features of the U.S. and French used-car markets. Counterfactual analyses show that transaction costs have a large effect on volume of trade, allocations, and the primary market. Aggregate effects on consumer surplus and welfare are relatively small, but the effect on lower-valuation households can be large.

本研究定量考察了汽车二级市场的配置效率与福利效应。此类市场中贸易利得的重要来源之一，在于消费者对更高品质（更新款）车辆的支付意愿存在异质性，但交易成本是即时交易的阻碍因素。经模型校准后，本研究成功拟合了美国与法国二手车市场的多项总体特征。反事实分析结果显示，交易成本对贸易交易量、资源配置及新车一级市场均具有显著影响。交易成本对消费者剩余与整体福利的总体影响相对较小，但对支付意愿较低的家庭的影响却可能十分显著。