Search costs and equilibrium price dispersion in auction markets

Matthew R. Backus, Joseph Uri Podwol and Henry Schneider

European Economic Review, 2014, vol. 71, issue C, 173-192

Abstract: A leading explanation for price dispersion in posted-price markets is search costs. We incorporate this insight into a model of competing second-price auctions similar to eBay. By doing so, we extend the narrow literature on competing auctions to capture price dispersion, and grow the already large literature on price dispersion to include auctions. We provide evidence on search costs and price dispersion using data collected from eBay, identifying search costs by exploiting a discontinuity in the visibility of auctions due to eBay׳s search tool.

Keywords: Auctions; Price dispersion; Search; eBay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Search Costs and Equilibrium Price Dispersion in Auction Markets (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:71:y:2014:i:c:p:173-192

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2014.06.005

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