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  4. May 2015
  5. Assessing Sale Strategies in Online Markets Using Matched Listings

American Economic Journal:
Microeconomics

ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)

Assessing Sale Strategies in Online Markets Using Matched Listings

  • Liran Einav
  • Theresa Kuchler
  • Jonathan Levin
  • Neel Sundaresan
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
vol. 7, no. 2, May 2015
(pp. 215–47)
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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)

Citation

Einav, Liran, Theresa Kuchler, Jonathan Levin, and Neel Sundaresan. 2015. "Assessing Sale Strategies in Online Markets Using Matched Listings." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 7 (2): 215–47. DOI: 10.1257/mic.20130046

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D44 Auctions
  • L11 Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
  • L81 Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
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