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Learning to Like What You Have - Explaining the Endowment EffectSteffen HuckUniversity College London - Department of Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Joerg OechsslerUniversity of Heidelberg - Alfred Weber Institute for Economics Georg KirchsteigerUniversité Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research) April 15, 1997 Abstract: The endowment effect describes the fact that people demand much more to give up an object than they are willing to spend to acquire it. The existence of this effect has been documented in numerous experiments. We attempt to explain this effect by showing that evolution favors individuals whose preferences embody an endowment effect. The reason is that an endowment effect improves one's bargaining position in bilateral trades. We show that for a general class of evolutionary processes almost all individuals will have a strictly positive and finite endowment effect.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 21 JEL Classification: C73, C79, D00 working papers seriesDate posted: May 21, 1997Suggested CitationContact Information
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