Learning from seller experiments in online markets
By: Liran Einav ... [et al.].
Contributors: National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 17385; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 17385.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "The internet has dramatically reduced the cost of varying prices, displays and information provided to consumers, facilitating both active and passive experimentation.  We document the prevalence of targeted pricing and auction design variation on eBay, and identify hundreds of thousands of experiments conducted by sellers across a wide array of retail products.  We show how this type of data can be used to address questions about consumer behavior and market outcomes, and provide illustrative results on price dispersion, the frequency of over-bidding, the choice of reserve prices, "buy now" options and other auction design parameters, and on consumer sensitivity to shipping fees.  We argue that leveraging the experiments of market participants takes advantage of the scale and heterogeneity of online markets and can be a powerful approach for testing and measurement"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 11/29/2011.

Includes bibliographical references.

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Mode of access: World Wide Web.