IDENTIFYING LIABILITY OF FOREIGNNESS USING EBAY AUCTION RESULTS

The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of a home country bias on the part of consumers as a source of Liability of Foreignness by examining whether the coin grading services of well-known companies are worth more or less to auction participants depending upon the country of residence of the buyer and the home country of the grading company. We find that residents of Canada place a significantly greater premium on the services of the Canadian rating agency relative to U.S. rating agencies. However, U.S. residents also favor the Canadian rating agency. Hence, we find no specific evidence of a home country purchasing bias when purchasing Canadian silver dollars on eBay.