Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58389 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 11-10
Publisher: 
University of California, Department of Economics, Davis, CA
Abstract: 
In an experiment using two-bidder first-price sealed bid auctions with symmetric independent private values and 400 participants, we collected information on the female participants' menstrual cycles and the use of hormonal contraceptives. We find that naturally cycling women bid significantly higher than men and earn significantly lower profits than men except during the midcycle when fecundity is highest. We suggest an evolutionary hypothesis according to which women are predisposed by hormones to generally behave more riskily during their fecund phase of their menstrual cycle in order to increase the probability of conception, quality of offspring, and genetic variety. We also find that women on hormonal contraceptives bid significantly higher and earn substantially lower profits than men. This may be due to progestins contained in hormonal contraceptives or a selection effect. We discuss how our study differs from Chen, Katuscak, and Ozdenoren (2009).
Subjects: 
Hormones
Menstrual cycle
Gender
Fecundity
Contraceptives
Pill
First-price auction
Risk behavior
Competition
Bidding
Endocrinological economics.
JEL: 
C72
C91
C92
D44
D81
D87
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
920.74 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.