Citation

Garbarino E, Slonim R. J. Risk Uncertain. 2007; 34(3): 241-257.

Affiliation

Case Western Reserve Univ, Dept Economics, Cleveland, OH 44106 USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11166-007-9013-x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The problem of asymmetric information causes a winner's curse in many environments. Given many unsuccessful attempts to eliminate it, we hypothesize that some people 'prefer' the lotteries underlying the winner's curse. Study 1 shows that after removing the hypothesized cause of error, asymmetric information, half the subjects still prefer winner's curse lotteries, implying past efforts to de-bias the winner's curse may have been more successful than previously recognized since subjects prefer these lotteries. Study 2 shows risk-seeking preferences only partially explain lottery preferences, while non-monetary sources of utility may explain the rest. Study 2 suggests lottery preferences are not independent of context, and offers methods to reduce the winner's curse.

Language: en