Is it a bargain? Or do low prices represent low quality? Or is cost independent of quality? To try to answer this question Phillips, Schleifer, and Hagelskamp (2016) conducted a nationally representative survey to investigate whether consumers believe that price and quality are associated. They found that:
Most Americans (58–71 percent, depending on question framing) did not think that price and quality are associated…
This is food for thought as many value-based health care programs aim to provide information on health care quality and cost to patients.