[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eth/wpswif/22-366.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Herd behavior in the choice of motorcycles: Evidence from Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Nilkanth Kumar

    (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Nirmal Kumar Raut

    (Central Department of Economics (CEDECON), Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal)

  • Suchita Srinivasan

    (Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland)

Abstract
This article sheds light on a scarcely explored area of research related to herd behavior in urban settings of developing economies, where the use of motorized twowheelers has been increasing rapidly. Using primary survey-based data from Nepal, we examine whether potential motorcycle buyers in the Kathmandu valley exhibit herd behavior or price-conscious behavior when making a hypothetical choice decision and then evaluate the determinants of the observed behavior. Using factor analysis, the paper identifies distinct homogeneous groups of respondents based on their preferences towards motorcycle attributes and on their psychological traits and attitudes. Not only do we find a prevalence of herding in the choice of motorcycles, the results also find strong suggestive evidence that, in addition to gender and income, several latent factors related to preferences and psychological traits might play a crucial role in determining the herd behavior. We discuss policy implications in the context of consumer behavior and environmental policy in the backdrop of rapid vehicle demand and dangerous air pollution levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Nilkanth Kumar & Nirmal Kumar Raut & Suchita Srinivasan, 2022. "Herd behavior in the choice of motorcycles: Evidence from Nepal," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 22/366, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:eth:wpswif:22-366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/mtec/cer-eth/cer-eth-dam/documents/working-papers/WP-22-366.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Naveen Khanna & Richmond D. Mathews, 2011. "Can herding improve investment decisions?," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 42(1), pages 150-174, March.
    2. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2010. "Are Risk Aversion and Impatience Related to Cognitive Ability?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1238-1260, June.
    3. Mathias Drehmann & Jörg Oechssler & Andreas Roider, 2005. "Herding and Contrarian Behavior in Financial Markets: An Internet Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1403-1426, December.
    4. Blasch, Julia & Filippini, Massimo & Kumar, Nilkanth, 2019. "Boundedly rational consumers, energy and investment literacy, and the display of information on household appliances," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 39-58.
    5. Heutel, Garth, 2019. "Prospect theory and energy efficiency," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 236-254.
    6. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    7. Maxime Merli & Tristan Roger, 2013. "What drives the herding behavior of individual investors?," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 34(3), pages 67-104.
    8. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1995. "Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1176-1209, December.
    9. Nicolas Melissas, 2005. "Herd behaviour as an incentive scheme," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 26(3), pages 517-536, October.
    10. Dean Yang, 2008. "International Migration, Remittances and Household Investment: Evidence from Philippine Migrants’ Exchange Rate Shocks," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(528), pages 591-630, April.
    11. Marco Cipriani & Antonio Guarino, 2005. "Herd Behavior in a Laboratory Financial Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1427-1443, December.
    12. Corazzini, Luca & Greiner, Ben, 2007. "Herding, social preferences and (non-)conformity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 74-80, October.
    13. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    14. Uri Simonsohn & Dan Ariely, 2008. "When Rational Sellers Face Nonrational Buyers: Evidence from Herding on eBay," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(9), pages 1624-1637, September.
    15. Xiao-Liang Shen & Kem Z.K. Zhang & Sesia J. Zhao, 2016. "Herd behavior in consumers’ adoption of online reviews," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(11), pages 2754-2765, November.
    16. Sushil Bikhchandani & Sunil Sharma, 2001. "Herd Behavior in Financial Markets," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 47(3), pages 1-1.
    17. Hunt Allcott & Christopher Knittel, 2019. "Are Consumers Poorly Informed about Fuel Economy? Evidence from Two Experiments," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-37, February.
    18. Chakra P. Acharya & Roberto Leon-Gonzalez, 2014. "How do Migration and Remittances Affect Human Capital Investment? The Effects of Relaxing Information and Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 444-460, March.
    19. repec:dau:papers:123456789/14772 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Schleich, Joachim & Gassmann, Xavier & Meissner, Thomas & Faure, Corinne, 2019. "A large-scale test of the effects of time discounting, risk aversion, loss aversion, and present bias on household adoption of energy-efficient technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 377-393.
    21. George Loewenstein, 2000. "Emotions in Economic Theory and Economic Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 426-432, May.
    22. Nirmal Kumar Raut & Ryuichi Tanaka, 2018. "Parental absence, remittances and educational investment in children left behind: Evidence from Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 1642-1666, November.
    23. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    24. Filippini, Massimo & Kumar, Nilkanth & Srinivasan, Suchita, 2020. "Energy-related financial literacy and bounded rationality in appliance replacement attitudes: evidence from Nepal," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 399-422, August.
    25. Juanjuan Zhang, 2010. "The Sound of Silence: Observational Learning in the U.S. Kidney Market," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 315-335, 03-04.
    26. Spyros Spyrou, 2013. "Herding in financial markets: a review of the literature," Review of Behavioral Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 5(2), pages 175-194, November.
    27. McFadden, Daniel, 1974. "The measurement of urban travel demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 303-328, November.
    28. Baddeley, M. & Pillas, D. & Christopoulos, Y. & Schultz, W. & Tobler, P., 2007. "Herding And Social Pressure In Trading Tasks: A Behavioural Analysis," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0730, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    29. Devenow, Andrea & Welch, Ivo, 1996. "Rational herding in financial economics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 603-615, April.
    30. Julia Blasch & Nina Boogen & Claudio Daminato & Massimo Filippini, 2018. "Empower the consumer! Energy-related financial literacy and its socioeconomic determinants," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 18/289, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    31. Abhijit V. Banerjee, 1992. "A Simple Model of Herd Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 797-817.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amy Wenxuan Ding & Shibo Li, 2019. "Herding in the consumption and purchase of digital goods and moderators of the herding bias," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 460-478, May.
    2. Ali, Mazhar & Amir, Dr.Huma & Shamsi, Dr.Aamir, 2021. "Consumer Herding Behavior in Online Buying: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 107435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. G. Rejikumar & Aswathy Asokan-Ajitha & Sofi Dinesh & Ajay Jose, 2022. "The role of cognitive complexity and risk aversion in online herd behavior," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 585-621, June.
    4. Puput Tri Komalasari & Marwan Asri & Bernardinus M. Purwanto & Bowo Setiyono, 2022. "Herding behaviour in the capital market: What do we know and what is next?," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 745-787, September.
    5. Hirshleifer, David & Teoh, Siew Hong, 2008. "Thought and Behavior Contagion in Capital Markets," MPRA Paper 9164, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Faheem Aslam & Paulo Ferreira & Haider Ali & Sumera Kauser, 2022. "Herding behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic: a comparison between Asian and European stock markets based on intraday multifractality," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 12(2), pages 333-359, June.
    7. Jonathan E. Alevy & Michael S. Haigh & John List, 2006. "Information Cascades: Evidence from An Experiment with Financial Market Professionals," NBER Working Papers 12767, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Guney, Yilmaz & Kallinterakis, Vasileios & Komba, Gabriel, 2017. "Herding in frontier markets: Evidence from African stock exchanges," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 152-175.
    9. Panu Kalmi & Gianluca Trotta & Andrius Kažukauskas, 2021. "Energy‐related financial literacy and electricity consumption: Survey‐based evidence from Finland," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 1062-1089, September.
    10. Boortz, Christopher & Kremer, Stephanie & Jurkatis, Simon & Nautz, Dieter, 2014. "Information risk, market stress and institutional herding in financial markets: New evidence through the lens of a simulated model," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2014-029, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    11. Galariotis, Emilios C. & Rong, Wu & Spyrou, Spyros I., 2015. "Herding on fundamental information: A comparative study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 589-598.
    12. Ana Martins & Mara Madaleno & Marta Ferreira Dias, 2020. "Financial Knowledge’s Role in Portuguese Energy Literacy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-22, July.
    13. Marco Cipriani & Antonio Guarino, 2014. "Estimating a Structural Model of Herd Behavior in Financial Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 224-251, January.
    14. Filiz, Ibrahim & Nahmer, Thomas & Spiwoks, Markus, 2019. "Herd behavior and mood: An experimental study on the forecasting of share prices," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    15. Pop, Raluca Elena, 2012. "Herd behavior towards the market index: evidence from Romanian stock exchange," MPRA Paper 51595, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Oi-Ping Chong & A.N. Bany-Ariffin & Annuar Md Nassir & Junaina Muhammad, 2019. "An Empirical Study of Herding Behaviour in China’s A-Share and B-Share Markets: Evidence of Bidirectional Herding Activities," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 27(2), pages 37-57.
    17. Utkarsh Shrivastava & Gyan Prakash & Joydip Dhar & Arti Omar, 2010. "Autoregression and decision making under uncertainty," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(8), pages 144-144, August.
    18. Sung, Ming-Chien & McDonald, David C.J. & Johnson, Johnnie E.V. & Tai, Chung-Ching & Cheah, Eng-Tuck, 2019. "Improving prediction market forecasts by detecting and correcting possible over-reaction to price movements," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(1), pages 389-405.
    19. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2014-029 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Yanqiu Jin & Xiuyun Yang & Yunhui Li & Wenjuan Zhang & Limin Wang & Yaoming Wu, 2010. "Ynthesis and Characterization of Nonstructural MG2NI with Replacement Diffusion Method," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 4(8), pages 114-114, August.
    21. Dang, Ha V. & Lin, Mi, 2016. "Herd mentality in the stock market: On the role of idiosyncratic participants with heterogeneous information," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 247-260.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    herd behavior; determinants; motorcycle choice; psychological factors; bounded rationality; Nepal;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eth:wpswif:22-366. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwethch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.