Anchors on prices of consumer goods only hold when decisions are hypothetical

We elicit willingness to pay for different types of consumption goods, systematically manipulating irrelevant anchors (high vs. low) and incentives to provide true valuations (hypothetical questions vs. Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism). On top of a strong hypothetical bias, we find that anchors only make a substantial, significant difference in the case of hypothetical data, the first experiments to directly document such an interaction. This finding suggests that hypothetical market research methods may deliver lower quality data. Moreover, it contributes to the discussion examining the mechanism underlying the anchoring effect, suggesting it could partly be caused by insufficient conscious effort to drift away from the anchor.

What Can Explain Momentum? Evidence from Decomposition

This study comprehensively evaluates and ranks a large number of competing explanations for the momentum anomaly. As a benchmark for evaluation, firm fundamentals are found to be the most promising among well-known explanations of momentum, followed by prospect theory and mental accounting, and anchoring effect. Collectively, all explanations capture 31% of momentum, whereas 69% of momentum remains unexplained. This study thoroughly examines what fractions of the momentum anomaly emerge from the interaction effects between past returns and various firm characteristics. It is further found that strategies based on firm characteristics and residual momentum can significantly alleviate the severity of momentum crashes. Finally, robustness analysis is provided for choosing different formation and holding periods, excluding January observations, and analyze at the level of portfolio rather than individual stock. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, finance.

The Dynamic Effects of Anchoring on Portfolio Return Volatility; Are there any economic issues in the developing world?

This study aims to see the anchoring effect on portfolio return volatility in the case of KSE-30. Business anomalies such as overreaction and under-reaction are affected by a variety of psychological causes. The use of anchors or baseline values known as the anchoring effect causes market under-reaction and overreaction. This research used nearness to 52-week high and nearness to historical high as proxies for under and over-reaction, respectively, to analyze the psychological causes for under and over-reaction. On the KSE-30, the findings revealed that proximity to the 52-week peak positively predicts future returns, whereas proximity to the historical high negatively predicts future returns. KSE-30 was used for rigorous testing. Similarly, the three macroeconomic variables used as control variables are the exchange rate, inflation rate, and interest rate to provide a more robust model of strong prediction capacity. The findings revealed that proximity to the 52-week maximum and proximity to the historical high and other macroeconomic factors had a forecast capacity of around 62 percent. Similarly, focused on volatility clusters, the GARCH (1, 1) model was used to measure the association between potential and past returns. The results show that there is a first order autoregressive function in the GARCH (1, 1) model. The findings also show that their predictive capacity decreases when the study's individual variables are moved from every day to annual Periods.

How does model type influence consumer and online fashion retailing?

PurposeModel's physical attractiveness plays an important role in online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among model type, consumer's perceived amount of information and consumer's approach behaviour.Design/methodology/approachConstrual level theory and anchoring effect are used to develop hypotheses. The authors conducted an online experiment in China, and 229 females participated in this experiment.FindingsCompared with the professional model, the nonprofessional model triggers consumers' more perceived amount of information and approach behaviour. The latter effect is significantly enhanced in the website retailing context. Moreover, perceived amount of information positively affects approach behaviour.Practical implicationsThe findings can help fashion brands understand the roles of model type and the online retailing context in consumer behaviour. It offers guidance on how to improve its marketing strategy scientifically. It can also provide consumers with suggestions for making objective purchasing decisions.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to examine the effects of two model types (professional model or nonprofessional model) on consumers' perceived amount of information and approach behaviour within two online retailing contexts (website stores or webcast studio).

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Oxidation Over Platinum Supported on Açaí Seed Coal for Synthesis of 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid

2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is produced from the selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and is an important platform molecule applied in the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries. Activated carbons produced from renewable resources are useful materials due to their physicochemical properties, defined mainly by the oxygenated functional groups on their surface. This work studies the oxidation of HMF to FDCA over Pt catalysts supported on açaí coal. The catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption, XPS, ToF-SIMS, FTIR, XRD, Raman, TEM, SEM, TPR-H2, and TGA/DTA. The conversion of HMF to FDCA in an alkaline medium occurred via hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA), which was oxidized to 5-formylfurancarboxylic acid (FFCA) and FDCA. The catalytic tests showed a high conversion of HMF with a 93.6% yield of FDCA. The excellent results were attributed to the high dispersion of Pt on the support and the presence of oxygenated functional groups on the coal surface. The functional groups increased the interaction between Pt-HMF and Pt-furan intermediates and favored a higher dispersion of platinum (53.3%) due to an anchoring effect.

Insight into the Anchoring Effect of Two-Dimensional TiX2 (X = S, Se, Te) Materials for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: A DFT Study

It is desirable to develop suitable anchoring materials to restrain the notorious shuttle phenomenon in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDs), especially TiS2, with excellent physicochemical properties have attracted much attention. Here, density functional theory (DFT) computations were performed to systematically explore the adsorption behaviors of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) over TiX2 (X = S, Se, Te) monolayer. It is concluded that TiS2 shows the best anchoring effect owing to the strongest adsorption energy, and the intrinsic structures of LiPSs after adsorption could be preserved by calculating the decomposition energy. Moreover, the low diffusion energy barrier of Li2S on TiS2 surface is expected to accelerate the kinetics during the charge/discharge process. Based on a series of calculations and discussion, we can theoretically demonstrate that TiS2, as an anchoring material, has advantages over TiSe2 and TiTe2 in enhancing Li-S batteries performance.

Anchoring does not activate examples associated with the anchor value

In the standard anchoring paradigm, people first compare a selected attribute of a target to a numeric value—an anchor. A subsequent absolute judgment of the target's attribute value is biased in the direction of the anchor. A prominent theory of the anchoring effect, the selective accessibility model, argues that people make the initial comparison by focusing on similarities between the target and the anchor, which activates information compatible with the anchor value being the target value. This activated information biases the subsequent estimate of the target value. To test the selective activation of information, the present study asked people to provide an example of the target's category following its comparison with an anchor. The attribute values of the provided examples were not biased in the direction of the anchor. However, they were positively associated with estimates of the target value. The study thus provides evidence for the use of activated information in the absolute judgment in the standard anchoring paradigm, but it does not show the selective activation of information compatible with the anchor value predicted by the selective accessibility model.