When Higher Quality Does Not Translate to Higher Prices: A Case of Quality and Specialty Coffees from the Cup of Excellence Auctions

This study investigates the Cup of Excellence coffee auctions and explains with behavioral economics observed intransitives in choice sets. Buyers are selecting lower quality coffees and paying higher prices for these coffees because they receive a higher rank. The estimates suggest that the representativeness and the framing heuristics explain the price premium for higher ranked coffees