Familiarity bias and economic decisions: Evidence from a survey experiment

This paper provides experimental evidence that people in China have strong familiarity bias identified by hometown and education locations when making merger and acquisition decisions. Emotions and genders could affect the role of familiarity bias in merger and acquisition decisions. •We provide experimental evidence on the role of home bias in economic decisions.•People in China have strong home bias when making merger and acquisition decisions.•Emotions could affect the role of home bias in the merger and acquisition decisions.