Can Cheap Talk Eliminate the House Money Effect in Apple Experimental Auction?

Abstract

In the experimental auction, participation fees can cause a house money effect that makes the value of the product higher than the actual value. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the house money effect can be eliminated in experimental auctions by applying cheap talk used in contingent valuation and choice experiment to reduce hypothetical bias. For the analysis, an experimental auction is conducted by organizing five different auction products depending on whether or not to provide information on the taste of apples, method, color, and sugar content. The number of experimental groups is 8, and four groups provide a cheap talk, and four groups do not. The number of bidders per group is about 15, and the number of rounds is 9. The results show that it has been empirically verified that cheap talk can eliminate the house money effect. The results also indicate that as the auction round progresses, the younger the age or the lower the education level, the greater the effect of removing the house money effect of the cheap talk. Since cheap talk is easily applicable and effective, the use of cheap talk is recommended in studies using experimental auction.