Experimental tests of the endowment effect

The discrepancy between WTA and WTP is supposed to be a manifestation of the endowment effect (KKT). The discrepancy between the average WTA-WTP disappears in the sense of statistical significance (Shogren et. at.) in settings with repeated interactions. In this paper we reexamine the KKT experimental procedures for identifying an endowment effect for consumer goods. No evidence of income or role effects is found. We show that even though the discrepancy between WTA-WTP diminishes undertrading can still persist in markets

Fairness: Effect on Temporary and Equilibrium Prices in Posted Offer Markets

Questionnaire studies suggest that perceptions of fairness cause people to resist price increases following abrupt changes in conditions with no cost justification. This hypothesis is examined in posted-offer markets extending previous work. Consistent with the hypothesis, in the profit disclosure (fairness) treatment prices are initially below those in the cost and the no disclosure treatments. But over time prices in all treatments converge to the competitive surplus maximising equilibrium. Thus 'fairness' is interpreted as being the result of expectations that are not sustainable. Expectations adapt as the market converges to the standard competitive equilibrium prediction.Publicad

Experimental tests of the endowment effect

The endowment effect, which predicts undertrading and a willingness-to-accept greater than willingness-to-pay, is studied using responses that remove all reference to buying or selling and focuses only on choice tasks. The results significantly lower the willingness-to-pay/willingness-to accept discrepancy, but the latter is still significant. A high efficiency open display uniform price auction is used to exchange mugs for money. Since mugs are randomly assigned to half of 2N subjects, N/2 mugs are predicted to trade. Less than N/2 mugs trade on average, but more than previously reported. The phenomenon exists but is less prominent than reported previously.Publicad

The nonprofit firm in a market setting.

This dissertation analyzes the nonprofit sector using a framework developed by economists to analyze for-profit industries. Its central hypotheses are that nonprofit 'firms' are run by self-interested individuals and compete for donations in a 'market'. It develops a model that demonstrates that nonprofit contracts are not necessary to solve the principal-agent problem that stems from a good being financed by unconditional lump-sum donations. The effects of nonprofit contracts in the model are ambiguous and might very well be harmful. The model is tested using both field data from California and laboratory experiments. The tests broadly support the model

Elie Wiesel: Conversations

Elie Wiesel has given hundreds of interviews. Yet his fame as a human rights advocate often directs such conversations toward non-literary issues. Indeed, many of Wiesel\u27s questioners barely address the writer\u27s role that has defined him since the 1950s. Unlike previous volumes in which he speaks with interviewers, Elie Wiesel: Conversations collects interviews which set in relief the writer at work. This book focuses on Wiesel the literary artist instead of Wiesel the Holocaust survivor or the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Beyond highlighting Wiesel\u27s literary significance, these interviews also correct many faulty assumptions about his achievement. Few American readers know that he writes in French, that he has been favorably compared to André Malraux and Albert Camus. Not many realize that the Holocaust has been the subject of only a few of his forty books. Particularly in his nonfiction, Wiesel\u27s scope is wide, addressing Jewish life in all its religious and historical complexity.https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/dlpp_all/1244/thumbnail.jp