Keywords

speculative behavior, neighborhood effects, social interaction, lottery, skewness preference

Abstract

Speculative behavior plays a key role in numerous markets, but little is known about its causes. We test for neighborhood effects on speculative behavior using daily lottery sales data from 20 states in the U.S. In a sample of 160,000 retailers, lottery sales in a census block increase by $0.26, on average, for each $1 increase in neighboring blocks. We test whether this correlation is attributable to contextual effects, correlated effects, or endogenous effects. Our analysis suggests that social interaction is an important cause of speculative behavior.

Original Publication Citation

Neighborhood Effects and Speculative Behavior (with Todd Mitton and Keith Vorkink), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2018.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2018

Publisher

Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Finance

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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