Personality traits and bidding behavior in competing auctions

Robert Hammond and Thayer Morrill

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2016, vol. 57, issue C, 39-55

Abstract: We study strategic behavior in an “alternating recognition” model of English auctions with competing sellers, which mimics a structure that is common in online marketplaces such as eBay. To relate decision making in our experimental setting to individual differences, we measure subjects’ personality with the Big-Five Trait Taxonomy. Our results suggest that personality has meaningful predictive power in explaining bidding behavior but only for female subjects. Further, females also earn more than males and the gender gap in earnings is large and significant. Finally, personality indirectly affects earnings through the choice of strategies but has no direct effect on earnings, controlling for strategies. This is an important result in that it demonstrates the mechanism through which personality matters in our setting.

Keywords: Competing sellers; Big Five personality traits; Gender; Auctions; Online markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D44 L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:57:y:2016:i:c:p:39-55

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2016.08.005

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