The DOI matches its Crossref record; 9 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Expectations as Endowments: Evidence on Reference-Dependent Preferences from Exchange and Valuation Experiments *
Open accessAbstract
Evidence on loss aversion and the endowment effect suggests that people evaluate outcomes with respect to a reference point. Yet little is known about what determines reference points. We conduct two experiments that show that reference points are determined by expectations. In the first experiment, we endow subjects with an item and randomize the probability they will be allowed to trade it for an alternative. Subjects that are less likely to be able to trade are more likely to choose to keep their item, as predicted when reference points are expectation-based, but not when reference points are determined by the status quo or when preferences are reference-independent. In the second experiment, we randomly assign subjects a high or low probability of obtaining an item for free and elicit their willingness-to-accept for it. Being in the high probability treatment increases valuation of the item by 20-30%.
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Citations
Cites
Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979) · Econometrica · doi:10.2307/1914185 · Cited by 48,524
A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Festinger, L. (1957) · doi:10.1515/9781503620766 · Cited by 24,241 · cited 1×
“For instance, cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) may lead subjects who expect to get an item to choose to like it more.”
Status quo bias in decision making
Samuelson, W., & Zeckhauser, R. (1988) · Journal of Risk and Uncertainty · doi:10.1007/bf00055564 · Cited by 5,897
Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem
Kahneman, D., Knetsch, J. L., & Thaler, R. H. (1990) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/261737 · Cited by 3,194 · cited 3×
“In a classic paper, Kahneman et al. (1990) find that initial ownership of an item seems to affect valuation of that item.”
A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences
Koszegi, B., & Rabin, M. (2006) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/121.4.1133 · Cited by 2,728
Loss Aversion and Seller Behavior: Evidence from the Housing Market
Genesove, D., & Mayer, C. (2001) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/003355301753265561 · Cited by 1,628
Does Market Experience Eliminate Market Anomalies?
List, J. A. (2003) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/00335530360535144 · Cited by 1,183
Modeling Loss Aversion and Reference Dependence Effects on Brand Choice
Hardie, B. G. S., Johnson, E. J., & Fader, P. S. (1993) · Marketing Science · doi:10.1287/mksc.12.4.378 · Cited by 903 · cited 1×
“…(Benartzi and Thaler, 1995; Odean, 1998; Genesove and Mayer, 2001), labor supply (Camerer et al., 1997; Fehr and Götte, 2007), and consumer demand (Hardie, Johnson, and Fader, 1993). ther the status quo (Samuelson and Zeckhauser, 1988) or some previous outcome determines the reference point.”
When Do Losses Loom Larger than Gains?
Ariely, D., Huber, J., & Wertenbroch, K. (2005) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.1509/jmkr.42.2.134.62283 · Cited by 267 · cited 1×
“One psychological mechanism underlying expectation-based reference points may be an “attachment effect,” related, for instance, to the “emotional attachment mechanism” discussed by Ariely et al. (2005). A higher probability of ending up with an item may increase the time or intensity with which an individual thinks ab…”
Background
Cited by
Evaluating replicability of laboratory experiments in economics
Camerer, C. F., Dreber, A., Forsell, E., Ho, T.-H., Huber, J., Johannesson, M., Kirchler, M., Almenberg, J., Altmejd, A., Chan, T., et al. (2016) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaf0918 · Cited by 1,314
Reference-Dependent Consumption Plans
Kőszegi, B., & Rabin, M. (2009) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.99.3.909 · Cited by 586
Thirty Years of Prospect Theory in Economics: A Review and Assessment
Barberis, N. (2012) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2177288 · Cited by 293
Reference Dependence in the Housing Market
Andersen, S., Badarinza, C., Liu, L., Marx, J., & Ramadorai, T. (2022) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20191766 · Cited by 111
Fischer, S., & Grosch, K. (2025) · Games and Economic Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.geb.2025.05.012 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Marzilli Ericson, K. M., & Fuster, A.
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011-10-25
- Volume
- 126
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1879-1907
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W3121969482
- Cited by
- 354
- References
- 9
- FWCI
- 12.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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- Marzilli Ericson, K. M., & Fuster, A. (2011). Expectations as Endowments: Evidence on Reference-Dependent Preferences from Exchange and Valuation Experiments *. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr034
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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