'At Least I Didn't Lose Money': Nominal Loss Aversion Shapes Evaluations of Housing Transactions

Research output: Working paperResearch

Loss aversion is one of the most robust findings to have emerged from behavioral economics. Surprisingly little attention, however, has been devoted to nominal loss aversion, the interaction of loss aversion and money illusion. People tend to think of transactions in terms of their nominal (monetary) values. Real losses may therefore loom larger in people’s minds when they lose money than when real losses are hidden by purely nominal gains. Using a survey experiment with a large and heterogeneous sample, we show that evaluations of housing transactions are systematically biased by purely nominal gains versus losses.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationCph.
PublisherDepartment of Economics, University of Copenhagen
Number of pages32
Publication statusPublished - 2012
SeriesUniversity of Copenhagen. Institute of Economics. Discussion Papers
Number14
Volume2012
ISSN0902-6452

ID: 40934654