Where did you get that from? Gender differences in bargaining for gifts and bought goods

Abstract

ABSTRACT Do men or women bargain more successfully? Existing evidence suggests that men achieve higher economic outcomes from bargaining than women – but the gap is context-specific. The literature predominantly studies one-shot bargaining games in the laboratory, situations in which communication is impossible, or situations in which persons follow a bargaining protocol. In this study, we use data from a TV show to study whether men or women bargain more successfully for trade deals in the field, without a strict protocol, and with free communication. We find that men and women bargain, on average, equally successfully. However, we find that the bargaining outcomes achieved by female sellers depend on the origin of an object. Specifically, women realize higher outcomes for bought objects than for objects they obtained for free, whereas men realize similar outcomes for bought and free objects. In sum, we find evidence that gender differences observed in the laboratory do not necessarily persist in bargaining situations in other settings and can even be inverted, dependent on the framing of the bargaining situation.