The Cloud and its Silver Lining: Negative and Positive Spillovers from Automotive Recalls

Product recalls hurt the sales of non-recalled products in the category because of negative spillovers. Recently, there has been some evidence of positive spillovers from recalls on the sales of non-recalled products. We focus on spillovers from brand- (i.e., same brand), firm- (i.e., same firm, but not same brand), and country-level (i.e., same country-of-origin, but not same firm) recalls on the sales of non-recalled products. Furthermore, we examine how advertising and price of non-recalled products interact with brand-, firm-, and country-level recalls to affect their sales. We use data on 124 cars in the USA in 2006–2015. Results indicate that brand-level (country-level) recalls hurt (benefit) the sales of non-recalled products. Higher advertising and price of non-recalled products weaken the negative effect of brand-level recalls, while lower advertising and price strengthen the positive effect of country-level recalls. Finally, firm-level recalls result in positive spillovers when advertising is high.