Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267722 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
WZB Discussion Paper No. SP II 2022-204
Publisher: 
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Berlin
Abstract: 
We study the endowment effect and expectation-based reference points in the field leveraging the setup of the Socio-Economic Panel. Households receive a small item for taking part in the panel, and we randomly assign respondents either a towel or a notebook, which they can exchange at the end of the interview. We observe a trading rate of 32 percent, consistent with an endowment effect, but no relationship with loss aversion. Manipulating expectations of the exchange opportunity, we find no support for expectation-based reference points. However, trading predicts residential mobility and is related to stock-market participation, i.e., economic decisions that entail parting with existing resources.
Subjects: 
exchange asymmetry
reference-dependent preferences
loss aversion
fieldexperiment
SOEP
JEL: 
C93
D84
D91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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