تصمیم گیری مصرف کننده در بازار سیاه برای کالاهای سرقت رفته و یا تقلبی

Three studies investigated hypothetical consumer behaviour in buying stolen, pirated or counterfeit goods from the black market. Study 1 found that both students and members of the general public rated the acceptability of such purchases higher when the victim was an organisation or society rather than an individual, and when there was a survival need rather than not otherwise being able to afford the good or wanting to save money. Study 2 used an adaptive method to find the price at which hypothetical consumers would buy from the black market rather than legally. The price was higher if the victim was society or an organisation, was little affected by the legal price, and generally averaged about a third of the legal price. Study 3 found that providing participants with information about the costs incurred by victims lowered the price they were willing to pay for black market goods, and increased the number of refusals to buy at any price.

Previous research has investigated a variety of different kinds of black market. Perhaps most frequently studied have been markets which are outside the official economy, with the frequent consequence of unpaid taxes. For example, Schneider and Enste (2000, p. 78) define black markets as “all economic activities that contribute to the officially calculated (or observed) gross national product but are currently unregistered” (Schneider & Enste, 2000, p.78). Although measures of their extent are notoriously uncertain (Giles, 1999), there is general agreement that it is large and varied. Williams (2003) found that participation is driven partly, but not only, by economic considerations. Fortin, Lacroix, and Montmarquette (2000) point out that those who provide goods and services in informal markets also tend to consume the goods and services they provide. Reilly, Krstic, and Cominetta (2006) found use of informal markets in Serbia more frequent among younger people and those on lower incomes. A common theme in this work is the importance of social networks for maintaining the markets. The study of informal markets has strong links to the question of why people evade taxes (e.g. Elffers, 1999, Kirchler, 2007, Mittone, 2006 and Reilly et al., 2006).

Taken over the three studies a number of variables were shown to affect either how acceptable people found it to participate in a black market or how much they would be willing to pay for goods that were available in it. Study 1 showed that the need of the purchaser was seen as important. Indeed, both the eta2 statistics and the differences between the means show that the effect was quite substantial. It was more acceptable to purchase from the black market to ensure survival than to save money or because a non-essential good would otherwise be unaffordable.