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The Value of Superstitions

Author

Listed:
  • Tarvis Ng
  • Terence Tai-Leung, Chong
  • Xin Du

Abstract

This paper estimates the value of superstitions by studying the auctions of vehicle license plates. We show that the value of superstitions is economically significant, which justifies their persistence in human civilization. We also document the changes of the value of superstitions across different types of plates, across different policy regimes, and across different macroeconomic environments. Interestingly, some of the changes are rather consistent with economic intuition.
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Suggested Citation

  • Tarvis Ng & Terence Tai-Leung, Chong & Xin Du, 2009. "The Value of Superstitions," Departmental Working Papers _189, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:chk:cuhked:_189
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Woo, Chi-Keung & Horowitz, Ira & Luk, Stephen & Lai, Aaron, 2008. "Willingness to pay and nuanced cultural cues: Evidence from Hong Kong's license-plate auction market," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 35-53, February.
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    7. Cynthia G. McDonald & V. Carlos Slawson, 2002. "Reputation in An Internet Auction Market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(4), pages 633-650, October.
    8. K. K. Lancaster, 2010. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Levine's Working Paper Archive 1385, David K. Levine.
    9. Thomas Kramer & Lauren Block, 2008. "Conscious and Nonconscious Components of Superstitious Beliefs in Judgment and Decision Making," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(6), pages 783-793, October.
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    11. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    12. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    13. Terence Tai‐Leung Chong & Xin Du, 2008. "Hedonic Pricing Models For Vehicle Registration Marks," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 259-276, May.
    14. Ka-Fu Wong & Linda Yung, 2005. "Do Dragons Have Better Fate?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(3), pages 689-697, July.
    15. Hristos Doucouliagos, 2004. "Number preference in Australian stocks," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 43-54.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Vinci Chow, 2019. "Predicting Auction Price of Vehicle License Plate with Deep Residual Learning," Papers 1910.04879, arXiv.org.
    2. Chui, Peter M.W. & Fong, Lawrence Hoc Nang & Ren, Jinjuan & Tam, Lewis H.K., 2022. "Anchoring effects in repeated auctions of homogeneous objects: Evidence from Macao," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Brad R. Humphreys & Adam Nowak & Yang Zhou, 2016. "Cultural Superstitions and Residential Real Estate Prices: Transaction-level Evidence from the US Housing Market," Working Papers 16-27, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    4. Bhattacharya, Haimanti & Dugar, Subhasish, 2022. "Business norm versus norm-nudge as a contract-enforcing mechanism: Evidence from a real marketplace," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    5. repec:cup:judgdm:v:11:y:2016:i:3:p:243-259 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Shum, Matthew & Sun, Wei & Ye, Guangliang, 2014. "Superstition and “lucky” apartments: Evidence from transaction-level data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 109-117.
    7. Siniver, Erez & Yaniv, Gideon, 2015. "Kissing the mezuzah and cognitive performance: Is there an observable benefit?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 40-46.
    8. Brian A. Polin & Eyal Ben Isaac & Itzhak Aharon, 2021. "Patterns in manually selected numbers in the Israeli lottery," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16(4), pages 1039-1059, July.
    9. Wei-han Liu, 2013. "Lunar calendar effect: evidence of the Chinese Farmer's Calendar on the equity markets in East Asia," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 560-593.
    10. Invernizzi, Giovanna M. & Miller, Joshua B. & Coen, Tommaso & Dufwenberg, Martin & Oliveira, Luiz Edgard R., 2021. "Tra i Leoni: Revealing the preferences behind a superstition," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Yang, Zili, 2011. "“Lucky” numbers, unlucky consumers," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 692-699.
    12. Jia He & Haoming Liu & Tien Foo Sing & Changcheng Song & Wei-Kang Wong, 2020. "Superstition, Conspicuous Spending, and Housing Market: Evidence from Singapore," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 783-804, February.
    13. Brad R. Humphreys & Adam Nowak & Yang Zhou, 2017. "Chinese Superstition and Real Estate Prices: Transaction-level Evidence from the US Housing Market," Working Papers 17-18, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    14. repec:cup:judgdm:v:14:y:2019:i:5:p:573-590 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Nicole M. Fortin & Andrew J. Hill & Jeff Huang, 2014. "Superstition In The Housing Market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(3), pages 974-993, July.
    16. Déborah Marciano & Eden Krispin & Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde & Leon Y. Deouell, 2019. "Limited resources or limited luck? Why people perceive an illusory negative correlation between the outcomes of choice options despite unequivocal evidence for independence," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 14(5), pages 573-590, September.
    17. Krzysztof Borowski, 2019. "Should Investors on Equity Markets Be Superstitious? (Example of 7 World Stock Indexes Components)," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(1), pages 151-174, January.
    18. Weng, Pei-Shih, 2018. "Lucky issuance: The role of numerological superstitions in irrational return premiums," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 79-91.
    19. Tong V. Wang & Rogier J. D. Potter van Loon & Martijn J. van den Assem & Dennie van Dolder, 2016. "Number preferences in lotteries," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(3), pages 243-259, May.
    20. Vinci Chow, 2017. "Predicting Auction Price of Vehicle License Plate with Deep Recurrent Neural Network," Papers 1701.08711, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2019.
    21. repec:cup:judgdm:v:16:y:2021:i:4:p:1039-1059 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. De Paola, Maria & Gioia, Francesca & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2014. "Overconfidence, omens and gender heterogeneity: Results from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 237-252.
    23. Woei-Chyuan Wong & Nur Adiana Hiau Abdullah & Hock-Eam Lim, 2019. "The Value Of Chinese Superstitions In Malaysia: Evidence From Car Plate Auctioning," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(01), pages 115-137, March.
    24. Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong & Desmond Lam & Davis Ka Chio Fong, 2018. "Controllable superstition and its relationship with enduring and behavioural involvement in gambling," International Gambling Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 92-110, January.
    25. Tao Chen & Andreas Karathanasopoulos & Stanley Iat-Meng Ko & Chia Chun Lo, 2020. "Lucky lots and unlucky investors," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 735-751, February.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D46 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Value Theory
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

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