The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"?

The Chinese society is well-known for its obsession towards number “8”.Eight is the luckiest number to the Chinese as its pronunciation resembles the meaning of prosperity, wealth or fortune.Prior research estimating the marginal effect of “8” on winning bid prices of car plate numbers attributes t...

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Main Authors: Lim, Hock Eam, Wong, Woei Chyuan, Abdullah, Nur Adiana Hiau
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Utara Malaysia 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/23996/1/MMJ%2021%202017%2049-60.pdf
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author Lim, Hock Eam
Wong, Woei Chyuan
Abdullah, Nur Adiana Hiau
author_facet Lim, Hock Eam
Wong, Woei Chyuan
Abdullah, Nur Adiana Hiau
author_sort Lim, Hock Eam
collection UUM
description The Chinese society is well-known for its obsession towards number “8”.Eight is the luckiest number to the Chinese as its pronunciation resembles the meaning of prosperity, wealth or fortune.Prior research estimating the marginal effect of “8” on winning bid prices of car plate numbers attributes the positive impact of “8” on bid prices to superstitious value.However, the estimated positive effect could also be attributed to Veblen goods and future resale consideration. Thus, an upward bias might exist in prior research’s estimation.This study aimed to circumvent this issue by comparing the marginal effect of all “8” car plate numbers of Malaysian Chinese bidders and their non-Chinese counterparts who are neutral towards number “8”.Descriptive statistics results reveal that the majority of all “8” plates are won by Chinese bidders.However, regression results reveal that Chinese bidders have a lower estimated marginal effect of number eight than their non-Chinese counterparts.This implies that while number “8” is popular among the Chinese, this popularity does not translate into higher bidding prices.These findings suggest the roles of Veblen goods and future resale consideration should not be ignored in estimating the superstitious value in car plate numbers.
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spelling uum-239962018-04-29T01:40:28Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/23996/ The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"? Lim, Hock Eam Wong, Woei Chyuan Abdullah, Nur Adiana Hiau HC Economic History and Conditions The Chinese society is well-known for its obsession towards number “8”.Eight is the luckiest number to the Chinese as its pronunciation resembles the meaning of prosperity, wealth or fortune.Prior research estimating the marginal effect of “8” on winning bid prices of car plate numbers attributes the positive impact of “8” on bid prices to superstitious value.However, the estimated positive effect could also be attributed to Veblen goods and future resale consideration. Thus, an upward bias might exist in prior research’s estimation.This study aimed to circumvent this issue by comparing the marginal effect of all “8” car plate numbers of Malaysian Chinese bidders and their non-Chinese counterparts who are neutral towards number “8”.Descriptive statistics results reveal that the majority of all “8” plates are won by Chinese bidders.However, regression results reveal that Chinese bidders have a lower estimated marginal effect of number eight than their non-Chinese counterparts.This implies that while number “8” is popular among the Chinese, this popularity does not translate into higher bidding prices.These findings suggest the roles of Veblen goods and future resale consideration should not be ignored in estimating the superstitious value in car plate numbers. Universiti Utara Malaysia 2017-12 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/23996/1/MMJ%2021%202017%2049-60.pdf Lim, Hock Eam and Wong, Woei Chyuan and Abdullah, Nur Adiana Hiau (2017) The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"? Malaysian Management Journal, 21. pp. 49-60. ISSN 0128-6226 http://mmj.uum.edu.my/index.php/current-issues
spellingShingle HC Economic History and Conditions
Lim, Hock Eam
Wong, Woei Chyuan
Abdullah, Nur Adiana Hiau
The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"?
title The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"?
title_full The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"?
title_fullStr The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"?
title_full_unstemmed The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"?
title_short The economic of luckiness: How crazy are Malaysian Chinese towards car plate number"8"?
title_sort economic of luckiness how crazy are malaysian chinese towards car plate number 8
topic HC Economic History and Conditions
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/23996/1/MMJ%2021%202017%2049-60.pdf
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