Sex Hormones and Competitive Bidding
研究了200多名受试者在独立私人价值首价拍卖中，唾液中的性激素（孕酮、睾酮、雌二醇、皮质醇）与出价和利润的关系，发现孕酮与女性（未使用激素避孕药）的出价正相关、利润负相关，其他激素无显著关联。
We correlate competitive bidding and profits in symmetric independent private value first-price auctions with salivary testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, and cortisol in more than 200 subjects. Bids are significantly positively correlated and profits are significantly negatively correlated with basal salivary progesterone, but only for females who do not use hormonal contraceptives. Surprisingly, we have null findings for basal testosterone, estradiol, and cortisol for both males and females. We show that our finding for progesterone is not mediated by risk aversion or bidding mistakes. No hormone responds to total profits in the auctions except for a small positive response of the stress hormone cortisol in males. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1959 . This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.