Data showing the effects of a range of different types of anchor on Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) and Willingness-to-Accept (WTA) valuations of familiar consumer products, elicited through individuals’ buying or selling decisions at given prices in incentivized valuation tasks. We focus on four specific dimensions of anchoring: the plausibility of anchor values, the relevance of the anchor task to the valuation task, the subject’s engagement in the anchoring task, and whether the valuation task was one of buying or selling. We find anchoring effects only when the anchor value is framed as a plausible price for the good for which the individual is a potential buyer or seller. Anchoring effects are stronger for WTA than for WTP. We conclude that anchoring effects can affect market behaviour, but that not all anchors are effective. Data are experimental data resulting from an experiment conducted at the Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) Laboratory at the University of East Anglia in Spring 2011. The ESRC Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) undertakes interdisciplinary research into competition policy and regulation that has real-world policy relevance without compromising academic rigour. It prides itself on the interdisciplinary nature of the research and the members are drawn from a range of disciplines, including economics, law, business and political science. The Centre was established in September 2004, building on the pre-existing Centre for Competition and Regulation (CCR), with a grant from the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council).

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