Menstrual cycle and competitive bidding

Pearson, Matthew and Schipper, Burkhard C (2009): Menstrual cycle and competitive bidding.

Abstract

In an experiment using two-bidder first-price sealed bid auctions with symmetric independent private values, we collected information on the female participants' menstrual cycles. We find that women bid significantly higher than men in their menstrual and premenstrual phase but do not bid significantly different in other phases of the menstrual cycle. We suggest an evolutionary hypothesis according to which women are genetically predisposed by hormones to generally behave more riskily during their fertile phase of their menstrual cycle in order to increase the probability of conception, quality of offspring, and genetic variety. Our finding is in contrast to results by Chen, Katuscak and Ozdenoren (2005, 2009).

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: hormones; menstrual cycle; gender; likelihood of conception; first price auction; risk behavior; competition; bidding; endocrinological economics
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D81 - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C92 - Laboratory, Group Behavior; D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design > D44 - Auctions; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C7 - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory > C72 - Noncooperative Games; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C91 - Laboratory, Individual Behavior; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D87 - Neuroeconomics

References

Alexander, G.M., Sherwin, B.B., Bancroft, J., and Davidson, D.W. (1990). Testosterone and sexual behavior in oral contraceptive users and nonusers: A prospective study, Hormones and Behavior 24, 388-402.

Apicella, C.L., Dreber, A., Campbell, B., Gray, P.B., Hoffman, M., and Little, A.C. (2008). Testosterone and financial risk preferences, Evolution and Human Behavior 29, 384-390.

Bateman, A.J. (1948). Inrasexual selection in Drosophila, Heridity 2, 349-368.

Blau, F. and Kahn, L. (2000). Gender differences in pay, Journal of Economic Perspectives 14, 75-99.

Bressan, P. and Stranieri, D. (2000). The best men are (not always) already taken, Psychological Science 19, 145-151.

Broeder, A., and Hohmann, N. (2003). Variations in risk taking behavior over the menstrual cycle: An improved replication, Evolution and Human Behavior 24, 391-398.

Cameron, C., Gelbach, J., and Miller, D. (2008). Bootstrap-based improvements for inference with clustered errors, Review of Economics and Statistics 90, 414-427.

Casari, M., Ham, J. and Kagel, J. (2007). Selection bias, demographic effects and ability effects in common value auction experiments, American Economic Review 97, 1278-1304.

Case, A. and Paxson, C. (2008). Stature and status: Height, ability, and labor market outcomes, Journal of Political Economy 116, 499-532.

Cesarini, D., Dawes, C.T., Johannesson, M., Lichtenstein, P., and Wallace, B. (2009). Genetic variation in preferences for giving and risk taking, Quarterly Journal of Economics 124, 809-842.

Chen Y., Katuscak, P. and Ozdenoren, E. (2009). Why can't a woman bid more like a man?, mimeo.

Chen, Y., Katuscak, P. and Ozdenoren, E. (2007). Sealed bid auctions with ambiguity: Theory and experiments, Journal of Economic Theory 136, 513-535.

Chen Y., Katuscak, P. and Ozdenoren, E. (2005). Why can't a woman bid more like a man?, mimeo.

Croson, R. and Gneezy, U. (2009). Gender differences in preferences, Journal of Economic Literature 47, 1-27.

Dabbs, J.M. and Hargrove, M.F. (1997). Age, testosterone, and behavior among female prison inmates, Psychosomatic Medicine 59, 477-480.

Dekel, E., and Scotchmer, S. (1999). On the evolution of attitudes towards risk in winner-take-all games, Journal of Economic Theory 87, 125-143.

Dreber, A., Apicella, C. L., Eisenberg, D.T.A., Garcia, J.R., Zamoree, R.S., Lume, J.K., and Campbell, B. (2009). The 7R polymorphism in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) is associated with financial risk taking in men, Evolution and Human Behavior 30, 85-92.

Fischbacher, U. (2007). z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments, Experimental Economics 10, 171-178.

Gangestad, S.W. and Simpson, J. A. (2000). The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23, 573-644.

Gangestad, S.W., Thorndill, R., and Garver-Apgar, C.E. (2006). Adaptations to ovulation, Current Directions in Psychological Research 14, 312-316.

Gangestad, S.W., Thorndill, R., and Garver, C.E. (2002). Changes in women's sexual interests and their partners' mate-retention tactics across the menstrual cycle: Evidence for shifting conflicts of interest, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, Biological Sciences, 269, 975-982.

Gneezy, U., Niederle, M., and Rustichini, A. (2003). Performance in competitive environments: Gender differences, Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, 1049 – 1074.

Greiner, B. (2004). An online recruitment system for economic experiments, in: Kremer, K., Macho, V. (eds.), Forschung und wissenschaftliches Rechnen 2003. GWDG Bericht 63, Goettingen: Ges. für Wiss. Datenverarbeitung, 79-93.

Ham, J. and Kagel, J. (2006). Gender effects in private value auctions, Economics Letters 92, 375-382.

Hampson, E. and Young, E.A. (2008). Methodological issues in the study of hormone-behavior relations in humans: Understanding and monitoring the menstrual cycle, in: Becker. J.B. et al. (Eds.), Sex differences in the brain. From genes to behavior, Oxford University Press, 63-78.

Haselton, M.G., and Gangstad, S.W. (2006). Conditional expression of women's desires and men's mate guarding across the ovulatory cycle, Hormones and Behavior 49, 509-518.

Harlow, S.D., Campbell, B., L., X.H., and Raz, J. (1997). Ethnic differences in the length of menstrual cycle during the postmenarcheal period, American Journal of Epidemiology 146, 572-580.

Holt, C. and Laury, S. (2002). Risk aversion and incentive effects, American Economic Review 92, 1644-1655.

Ichino, A. and Moretti, E. (2008). Biological gender differences, absenteeism and the earning gap, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 1, 183-218.

Jakes, R.W., Alexander, L., Duffy, S.W., Leong, J., Chen, L.H., and Lee, W.H. (2001). Dietary intake of soybean protein and menstrual cycle length in pre-menopausal Singapore Chinese women, Public Health Nutrition 4, 191-196.

Kagel, J. and Levin, D. (1993). Independent private value auctions: Bidder behavior in first, second and third price auctions with varying numbers of bidders, Economic Journal 103, 868-879.

Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk, Econometrica 67, 263-291.

Kanazawa, S. and Kovar, J.L. (2004). Why beautiful people are more intelligent, Intelligence 32, 227-243.

Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P., Fischbacher, U. and Fehr, E. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans, Nature 435, 673-676.

Krishna, V. (2002). Auction theory, Academic Press.

Filiz, E. and Ozbay, E. (2007). Auctions with anticipated regret: Theory and experiment, American Economic Review 97, 1407-1418.

Pearson, M. and Schipper, B.C. (2009). The Visible Hand: Finger ratio (2D:4D) and competitive behavior, mimeo, The University of California, Davis.

Penton-Voak, I.S. and Perrett D.I. (2000). Female preference for male faces changes cyclically: Further evidence, Evolution and Human Behavior 21, 39-48.

Penton-Voak, I.S., Perrett, D.I., Castles, D.L., Kobayashi, T., Burt, D.M., Murray, L.K., and Minamisawa, R. (1999). Female preferences for male faces changes cyclically, Nature 399, 741-742.

Robson, A. (1996). The evolution of attitudes to risk: Lottery tickets and relative wealth, Games and Economic Behavior 14, 190-207.

Trivers, R. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection, in: Campbell, B. (ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man 1871-1971, Chicago: Aldine, 136-179.

Welling, L.L.M., Jones, B.C., DeBruine, L.M., Conway, C.A., Law Smith, M.J., Little, A.C., Feinberg, D.R., Sharp, M.A., and Al-Dujaili, E.A.S. (2007). Raised salivary testosterone in women is associated with increases attraction to masculine faces, Hormones and Behavior 52, 156-161.

Wilcox, A.J., Baird, D. D., Dunson, D.B., McConnaughey, D.R., Kesner, J.S., and Weinberg, C.R. (2004). On the frequency of intercourse around ovulation: Evidence for biological influences, Human Reproduction 19, 1539-1543.

Wilcox, A.J., Dunson, D.B., Weinberg, C.R., Trussel, J., and Baird, D.D. (2001). Likelihood of conception with a single act of intercourse: providing benchmark rates for assessment of post-coital contraceptives, Contraception 63, 211-215.

Zak, P., Kurzban, R. and Matzner, W.T. (2005). Oxytocin is associated with human trustworthiness, Hormones and Behavior 48, 522-527.

Zak, P., Stanton, A., and Ahmadi, S. (2007). Oxytocin increases generosity in humans, PLoS One 2, e1128.