Latest / Behavioral Economics with Fexingo: Decision Making, Bias, and How People Really Spend
The Hundred-Dollar IKEA Billy Bookcase and Your Brain
In the premiere episode of Behavioral Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna anchor the conversation around one of the most iconic objects in consumer history — the IKEA Billy bookcase. Since 1979, over 140 million Billys have been sold worldwide. But why has a simple, flat-packed, particleboard shelf become a global phenomenon? The answer isn't in pricing or design alone — it's in how our brains process effort, ownership, and identity. Lucas introduces the IKEA effect, the endowment effect, and a classic 2011 Harvard study showing that people value self-made furniture far more than…
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