Assessing Sale Strategies in Online Markets Using Matched Listings

Liran Einav, Theresa Kuchler, Jonathan Levin and Neel Sundaresan

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2015, vol. 7, issue 2, 215-47

Abstract: We use data from eBay to identify hundreds of thousands of instances in which retailers posted otherwise identical product listings with targeted variation in pricing and auction design. We use these matched listings to measure the dispersion in auction prices for identical goods sold by the same seller, to estimate nonparametric auction demand curves, to analyze the effect of buy it now options, and to assess consumer sensitivity to shipping fees. The scale of the data allows us to show that the estimates are robust to narrower criteria for matching listings, thereby addressing plausible concerns about endogeneity and selection biases. (JEL D44, L11, L81)

JEL-codes: D44 L11 L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/mic.20130046
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (65)

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