Crafting Lucky Prices in the Housing Market

Fang-Chang Kuo & Chia-Ming Hsieh

The BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy2026https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2025-0297article
AJG 2ABDC A
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

While superstitious beliefs are known to influence property values through fixed attributes such as floor levels and address numbers, their role in price formation has received little attention. We provide novel evidence that housing prices bunch not only at round numbers but also at culturally “lucky” endings, particularly those ending in the digit 8. A hedonic price model reveals a 2.4 % premium for these “lucky-priced” homes. Our findings show that superstition functions as a behavioral heuristic in high-stakes bargaining, creating a new class of non-round focal points that systematically shape market outcomes.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2025-0297

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@article{fang-chang2026,
  title        = {{Crafting Lucky Prices in the Housing Market}},
  author       = {Fang-Chang Kuo & Chia-Ming Hsieh},
  journal      = {The BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2025-0297},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.