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No endowment effect when people transact secondhand goods over the Internet

Author

Listed:
  • Sergio Da Silva

    (Department of Economics, Federal University of Santa Catarina)

  • Raul Matsushita

    (Department of Statistics, University of Brasilia)

  • Eliza Silveira

    (Department of Economics, Federal University of Santa Catarina)

Abstract

We set up a field experiment of the endowment effect by considering thrift shops in Facebook chat rooms and college chat rooms dedicated to secondhand goods transactions. Owners of goods held for use are generally expected to show the endowment effect, but here we show these very owners (most of them females) switch to a trader-like behavior when conducting transactions in the thrift shops and, as a result, the endowment effect vanishes.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio Da Silva & Raul Matsushita & Eliza Silveira, 2015. "No endowment effect when people transact secondhand goods over the Internet," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(3), pages 1961-1968.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-15-00604
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    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2015/Volume35/EB-15-V35-I3-P199.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Da Costa, Newton & Goulart, Marco & Cupertino, Cesar & Macedo, Jurandir & Da Silva, Sergio, 2013. "The disposition effect and investor experience," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1669-1675.
    2. Charles R. Plott & Kathryn Zeiler, 2007. "Exchange Asymmetries Incorrectly Interpreted as Evidence of Endowment Effect Theory and Prospect Theory?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1449-1466, September.
    3. Kahneman, Daniel & Knetsch, Jack L & Thaler, Richard H, 1990. "Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1325-1348, December.
    4. Knetsch, Jack L, 1989. "The Endowment Effect and Evidence of Nonreversible Indifference Curves," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(5), pages 1277-1284, December.
    5. Steffen Huck & Georg Kirchsteiger & Jörg Oechssler, 2005. "Learning to like what you have - explaining the endowment effect," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(505), pages 689-702, July.
    6. Charles R. Plott & Kathryn Zeiler, 2005. "The Willingness to Pay–Willingness to Accept Gap, the "Endowment Effect," Subject Misconceptions, and Experimental Procedures for Eliciting Valuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 530-545, June.
    7. John A. List, 2003. "Does Market Experience Eliminate Market Anomalies?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 41-71.
    8. Bertrand, Marianne & Shafir, Eldar & Mullainathan, Sendhil, 2006. "Behavioral Economics and Marketing in Aid of Decision Making Among the Poor," Scholarly Articles 2962609, Harvard University Department of Economics.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ebo Botchway & Jan Verpooten & Ine van der Beken & Justina Baršytė & Siegfried Dewitte, 2023. "The Endowment Effect in the Circular Economy: Do Broken Products Face Less of a Trading Barrier Than Intact or Repaired Ones?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-19, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    endowment effect; behavioral economics; secondhand markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D0 - Microeconomics - - General
    • G0 - Financial Economics - - General

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