Consumer Search and Search Cost in terms of Time: Empirical Study in On-line Coupon Market

Search cost has been perceived as the monetary cost of acquisition of price information. In this paper, we provide an alternative to evaluate search cost. We believe that time spent on search reveals not only the opportunity cost, but also the cognitive cost. We present empirical analysis on search behavior with on-line coupon shopping data, and estimate search cost in terms of time. We find gender and age differences in the distribution of search cost. Our result suggests that females have lower search cost than that of males, and search costs decreases in age. Weekday and hourly effects are also confirmed in our research. We observe last minute effect and incorporate effects related to consumers’ risk preference as well.