Assessing Sale Strategies in Online Markets Using Matched Listings

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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

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Additional Materials

• Data Set (265.03 KB) The data used for the paper is proprietary, and therefore cannot be posted online.
• Online Appendix (1.05 MB)
• Author Disclosure Statement(s) (36.29 KB)