The Effect of Market Experience on the WTA/WTP Disparity: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Sports Memorabilia

Abstract:     
A bulk of recent evidence suggests that important disparities exist between willingness to pay and compensation demanded for the same good. This paper extends and refutes the generality of these findings by going to a well-functioning marketplace and allowing consumers to swap sports memorabilia. In support of the received literature, I present field evidence that suggests an inefficiently low number of trades occur for naive traders, suggesting reference-dependent preferences. In contrast, this anomaly is not evident for consumers that have significant trading experience. These results uncover important successes and failures of the theoretical literature, and provide challenges for both neoclassical and reference-dependent theorists.

JEL Classifications: Q21, Q26

Working Paper Series