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A study of numerological superstitions in the apartments market

Author

Listed:
  • Elena B. Pokryshevskaya

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

  • Evgeny A. Antipov

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Abstract

In this paper we study the influence of superstitions related to numbers 13 and 7 on people's buying behavior in the apartment market. A unique feature of our methodology is that we use real sales data instead of survey or pricing data. Based on the dataset from Saint-Petersburg primary real estate market we compare the share of sold apartments on floor 7 with that of on floors 6 and 8, whereas floor 13 is benchmarked to floors 12 and 14. As floors are comprised by exactly the same apartments we manage to isolate the effects of the "lucky" and "unlucky" numbers. We have found a significantly negative effect of the 13th ("unlucky") floor on demand for apartments in new apartment houses, but no significant positive effect of the 7th ("lucky") floor. Possible implications of this result and directions for future research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena B. Pokryshevskaya & Evgeny A. Antipov, 2015. "A study of numerological superstitions in the apartments market," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 83-88.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-15-00126
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    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2015/Volume35/EB-15-V35-I1-P9.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Woei-Chyuan Wong & Nur Adiana Hiau Abdullah & Hock-Eam Lim, 2019. "The Value Of Chinese Superstitions In Malaysia: Evidence From Car Plate Auctioning," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(01), pages 115-137, March.
    2. Fanhui Meng & Haoming Sun & Jiarong Xie & Chengjun Wang & Jiajing Wu & Yanqing Hu, 2021. "Preference for Number of Friends in Online Social Networks," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-13, September.
    3. Wu, Nan & Zhang, Xiaomeng & Zhou, Wenyu, 2023. "The impacts of superstition on risk preferences and beliefs: Evidence from the Chinese zodiac year," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    superstitions; residential real estate; lucky number; unlucky number; Wilcoxon test;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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