BIDDING BEHAVIOR IN A NATURAL EXPERIMENT: TV GAME SHOW “I DON’T KNOW, MY SPOUSE KNOWS”

Behavioral finance deals with the financial decision making that violates the classical finance and economic theories, and underlying reasons for such anomalous behavior by economic actors. There are several environments in which financial decisions are made. Financial markets are the most popular one; but auction markets are somehow neglected by behavioral finance researchers. We examine bidding behavior in a TV game show, broadcasted first in Germany with the name “Mein Mann Kann”, and later adopted by a TV channel in Turkey as “I Don’t Know, My Spouse Knows”. It mimics an actual sequential open-outcry auction as a natural experiment. To our knowledge, this study will be the first one made regarding this show. Results indicate no age, marital status difference in risk aversion, but significant difference between winners’ and losers’ bids where losers’ bids were higher, which is possible indication of loss aversion. Women and men are taking risks equally, contrary to the majority of research findings. The results expected to contribute to the behavioral finance and auction literature and may illuminate further research in both fields