IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/beexfi/v42y2024ics2214635024000455.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loss aversion and focal point bias: Empirical evidence from housing markets

Author

Listed:
  • Ross, Stephen L.
  • Zhou, Tingyu

Abstract

Most research documenting correlation between behavioral biases use survey or experimental data, often focusing on related biases. We test whether evidence of loss aversion in housing sales prices is stronger among individuals who exhibited focal point tendencies when selecting their mortgage amount at purchase, allowing for market impacts of both behavioral biases in high-stakes contexts. We find a strong positive relationship between the effects of facing a loss on eventual sales prices and whether sellers selected a round mortgage amount during their initial purchase. Further, we show that selecting round mortgage amounts is persistent within borrowers over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross, Stephen L. & Zhou, Tingyu, 2024. "Loss aversion and focal point bias: Empirical evidence from housing markets," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:42:y:2024:i:c:s2214635024000455
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100930
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214635024000455
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100930?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wei-Yu Kuo & Tse-Chun Lin & Jing Zhao, 2015. "Cognitive Limitation and Investment Performance: Evidence from Limit Order Clustering," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(3), pages 838-875.
    2. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Stephen L. Ross, 2016. "The Vulnerability of Minority Homeowners in the Housing Boom and Bust," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-27, February.
    3. Dan Galai, 2006. "The "Ostrich Effect" and the Relationship between the Liquidity and the Yields of Financial Assets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(5), pages 2741-2759, September.
    4. Philippe Bracke & Silvana Tenreyro, 2021. "History Dependence in the Housing Market," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 420-443, April.
    5. John M. Clapp & Stephen L. Ross, 2004. "Schools and Housing Markets: An Examination of School Segregation and Performance in Connecticut," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(499), pages 425-440, November.
    6. Nicola Lacetera & Devin G. Pope & Justin R. Sydnor, 2012. "Heuristic Thinking and Limited Attention in the Car Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 2206-2236, August.
    7. Genesove, David & Mayer, Christopher J, 1997. "Equity and Time to Sale in the Real Estate Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 255-269, June.
    8. Oechssler, Jörg & Roider, Andreas & Schmitz, Patrick W., 2009. "Cognitive abilities and behavioral biases," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 147-152, October.
    9. Hoppe, Eva I. & Kusterer, David J., 2011. "Behavioral biases and cognitive reflection," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(2), pages 97-100, February.
    10. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    11. David Genesove & Christopher Mayer, 2001. "Loss Aversion and Seller Behavior: Evidence from the Housing Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(4), pages 1233-1260.
    12. Sheharyar Bokhari & David Geltner, 2011. "Loss Aversion and Anchoring in Commercial Real Estate Pricing: Empirical Evidence and Price Index Implications," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(4), pages 635-670, December.
    13. Luca Repetto & Alex Solís, 2020. "The Price of Inattention: Evidence from the Swedish Housing Market," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 3261-3304.
    14. Marco Casari & John C. Ham & John H. Kagel, 2007. "Selection Bias, Demographic Effects, and Ability Effects in Common Value Auction Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1278-1304, September.
    15. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    16. Itzhak Ben-David & David Hirshleifer, 2012. "Are Investors Really Reluctant to Realize Their Losses? Trading Responses to Past Returns and the Disposition Effect," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(8), pages 2485-2532.
    17. Shen, Lily & Ross, Stephen, 2021. "Information value of property description: A Machine learning approach," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    18. Victor Stango & Jonathan Zinman, 2020. "Behavioral Biases are Temporally Stable," NBER Working Papers 27860, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Anenberg, Elliot, 2011. "Loss aversion, equity constraints and seller behavior in the real estate market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 67-76, January.
    20. Steffen Andersen & Cristian Badarinza & Lu Liu & Julie Marx & Tarun Ramadorai, 2022. "Reference Dependence in the Housing Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(10), pages 3398-3440, October.
    21. Meng, Charlotte C., 2023. "The price paid: Heuristic thinking and biased reference points in the housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    22. Meghan R. Busse & Nicola Lacetera & Devin G. Pope & Jorge Silva-Risso & Justin R. Sydnor, 2013. "Estimating the Effect of Salience in Wholesale and Retail Car Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 575-579, May.
    23. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    24. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    25. Adam D. Nowak & Patrick S. Smith, 2020. "Quality-Adjusted House Price Indexes," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 339-356, September.
    26. Li Gan & Michael D. Hurd & Daniel L. McFadden, 2005. "Individual Subjective Survival Curves," NBER Chapters, in: Analyses in the Economics of Aging, pages 377-412, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Tingyu Zhou & John M Clapp & Ran Lu‐Andrews, 2022. "Examining omitted variable bias in anchoring premium estimates: Evidence based on assessed value," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(3), pages 789-828, September.
    28. Bergman, Oscar & Ellingsen, Tore & Johannesson, Magnus & Svensson, Cicek, 2010. "Anchoring and cognitive ability," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 66-68, April.
    29. Michael D. Hurd, 2009. "Subjective Probabilities in Household Surveys," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 543-564, May.
    30. Clapp, John M. & Salavei, Katsiaryna, 2010. "Hedonic pricing with redevelopment options: A new approach to estimating depreciation effects," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 362-377, May.
    31. Nicholas C. Barberis, 2013. "Thirty Years of Prospect Theory in Economics: A Review and Assessment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 173-196, Winter.
    32. Fraser-Mackenzie, P. & Sung, M. & Johnson, J.E.V., 2015. "The prospect of a perfect ending: Loss aversion and the round-number bias," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 67-80.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen L. Ross & Tingyu Zhou, 2020. "Documenting Loss Aversion Using Evidence of Round Number Bias," Working Papers 2020-079, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    2. Meng, Charlotte C., 2023. "The price paid: Heuristic thinking and biased reference points in the housing market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    3. Giacoletti, Marco & Parsons, Christopher A., 2022. "Peak-Bust rental spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 504-526.
    4. Greenaway-McGrevy, Ryan & Sorensen, Kade, 2021. "A Time-Varying Hedonic Approach to quantifying the effects of loss aversion on house prices," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Daniel J. Benjamin & Sebastian A. Brown & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2013. "Who Is ‘Behavioral’? Cognitive Ability And Anomalous Preferences," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(6), pages 1231-1255, December.
    6. Tingyu Zhou & John M Clapp & Ran Lu‐Andrews, 2022. "Examining omitted variable bias in anchoring premium estimates: Evidence based on assessed value," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(3), pages 789-828, September.
    7. Alasdair Brown & Fuyu Yang, 2017. "Salience and the Disposition Effect: Evidence from the Introduction of “Cash‐Outs” in Betting Markets," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 1052-1073, April.
    8. Königsheim, C. & Lukas, M. & Nöth, M., 2019. "Salience theory: Calibration and heterogeneity in probability distortion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 477-495.
    9. Lamorgese, Andrea R. & Pellegrino, Dario, 2022. "Loss aversion in housing appraisal: Evidence from Italian homeowners," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    10. Tyran, Jean-Robert & Stephens, Thomas A, 2012. "?At least I didn?t lose money? Nominal Loss Aversion Shapes Evaluations of Housing Transactions," CEPR Discussion Papers 9198, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Tramontana, Fabio, 2021. "When a boundedly rational monopolist meets consumers with reference dependent preferences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 30-45.
    12. Satakhun Kosavinta & Donyaprueth Krairit & Do Ba Khang, 2017. "Decision making in the pre-development stage of residential development," Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(2), pages 160-183, March.
    13. Marco Pleßner, 2017. "The disposition effect: a survey," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 67(1), pages 1-30, February.
    14. John M. Clapp & Ran Lu‐Andrews & Tingyu Zhou, 2020. "Anchoring to Purchase Price and Fundamentals: Application of Salience Theory to Housing Cycle Diagnosis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(4), pages 1274-1317, December.
    15. Zhou, Tingyu & Clapp, John M & Lu-Andrews, Ran, 2021. "Is the behavior of sellers with expected gains and losses relevant to cycles in house prices?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    16. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.
    17. Patrick Krieger & Carsten Lausberg, 2021. "Entscheidungen, Entscheidungsfindung und Entscheidungsunterstützung in der Immobilienwirtschaft: Eine systematische Literaturübersicht [Decisions, decision-making and decisions support systems in r," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 7(1), pages 1-33, April.
    18. Jakusch, Sven Thorsten, 2017. "On the applicability of maximum likelihood methods: From experimental to financial data," SAFE Working Paper Series 148, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2017.
    19. Steffen Andersen & Cristian Badarinza & Lu Liu & Julie Marx & Tarun Ramadorai, 2022. "Reference Dependence in the Housing Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(10), pages 3398-3440, October.
    20. Jonathan E. Ingersoll Jr. & Lawrence J. Jin, 2014. "Realization Utility with Reference-Dependent Preferences," Papers 1408.2859, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Housing sales; Loss aversion; Anchoring; Mortgage; Behavioral bias; Round numbers; Focal point bias; House prices; Sale likelihood;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:beexfi:v:42:y:2024:i:c:s2214635024000455. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-behavioral-and-experimental-finance .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.