This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
  4. November 2024
  5. Recovering the Anchoring of Economic Valuations

American Economic Journal:
Microeconomics

ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)

Recovering the Anchoring of Economic Valuations

  • Liang Guo
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
vol. 16, no. 4, November 2024
(pp. 192–228)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

We revisit the interpretation of the anchoring effect as evidence for nonexisting or arbitrary preferences. A theory of endogenous information acquisition (i.e., deliberation) is developed to rationalize the causal dependence of economic valuations on arbitrary anchor numbers. We identify theory-driven moderators to reconcile seemingly discrepant findings among original and follow-up anchoring experiments. We demonstrate in a meta-analysis that the anchoring effect may be systematically moderated by unintended experimental/individual differences. Moreover, apparent replication failure of the anchoring effect may be a false negative for self-countervailing treatment effects, because an anchoring treatment may cast opposite effects on different subjects within an experiment.

Citation

Guo, Liang. 2024. "Recovering the Anchoring of Economic Valuations." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 16 (4): 192–228. DOI: 10.1257/mic.20200320

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • C90 Design of Experiments: General
  • D11 Consumer Economics: Theory
  • D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
There are no comments for this article.
Login to Comment