Year: 2021
Type: preprint
Abstract: The central issue of the wide literature about the endowment effect is the search for an explanation of the fact \nthat the selling price of a good will be higher than that at which a person is willing to buy that same good, \nonce they own it. The experimental evidence is not unanimous in replicating the results found by Kahneman \net al. (1990 and 1991). The challenge is that of disentangling the several determinants that may be at work in \ngenerating the final effect, as the loss aversion is not considered the only explanation. \nWe dig deeper by examining two of these likely determinants which remain understudied: the first is the \nimpact that the amount of time of ownership can have on the endowment effect. The second is the type of \nitem (non-material good and exchange goods) used to test the effect. Through an online questionnaire we \ninvestigate these aspects by using three different goods: a mug, an Amazon Gift Card and a quarterly \nsubscription to Spotify. We also test whether the endowment effect occurs in different time scenarios, that is \nif participants imagine to own the good for one day, one week or one month. \nWe find that the endowment effect clearly appears for all types of goods while less clear results take shape \nwhen considering the duration of the ownership.
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3198393035