Are female skins sold for a lower price? Evidence from the Fortnite game

Arbeitspapier

Much significant research has been done to shed light on discrimination of females in, for example, labor markets. Less is known, in contrast, about the amount of discrimination in the virtual world of online gaming. In an early study, Castronova (2004) finds that female avatars receive about 10% lower prices in online auctions. In this research note, we re-examine the pricing of avatars sold in the Fortnite game. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that female and male avatars are sold at the same prices. We also account for the impact of a Fortnite sex scandal on the price differential between female and male avatars.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Discussion Paper ; No. 420

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms ; Marketing
• Subject: gender discrimination ; Fortnite ; gaming ; Freemium ; product differentiation ; market segmentation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Stadtmann, Georg ; Tosun, Aynur Dilan ; Pierdzioch, Christian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): European University Viadrina, Department of Business Administration and Economics
• (where): Frankfurt (Oder)
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.11584/opus4-773
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/224206
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET