TY  - JOUR
AU  - Heffetz,Ori
AU  - List,John A.
TI  - Is the Endowment Effect a Reference Effect?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16715
PY  - 2011
Y2  - January 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16715
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16715.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ori Heffetz
Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cornell University
324 Sage Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel: 607/255-4668
E-Mail: oh33@cornell.edu

John List
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 301/405-1288
Fax: 301/314-9091
E-Mail: jlist@uchicago.edu
AB  - This paper is aimed to assess, with two lab experiments, to what extent Kőszegi and Rabin's (2006) model of expectations-based reference-dependent preferences can explain Knetsch's (1989) endowment effect. Departing from past work, we design an experiment that treats the two goods (a mug and a pen) symmetrically in all but in the probabilities with which they are expected to be owned. Thus, our "endowmentless" endowment effect experiment shuts down all alternative mechanisms while leaving expectations the only difference between treatments. We find no evidence that expectations alone can reproduce any of the original effect.
ER  -