The endowment effect is the tendency for people who own a good to value it more than people who do not. Its economic impact is consequential. It creates market inefficiencies and irregularities in valuation such as differences between buyers and sellers, reluctance to trade, and mere ownership effects. This study (n=495) presents evidence that endowment effect can be elicited merely by assigned ownership. Employing survey responses we were able to generate an endowment effect size of 15-20 times (at p<0.05) increase between willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA).
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