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The seller's listing strategy in online auctions: Evidence from eBay

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  • Chen, Kong-Pin
  • Lai, Hung-pin
  • Yu, Ya-Ting

Abstract

This paper studies the seller's online listing strategy and its consequences. By focusing on the fixed-price posting, buy-it-now auction and regular auction, we empirically investigate how the sellers choose the listing format and its associated strategic instruments to better understand their strategic behavior. An empirical model that addresses plausible concerns about sample selection bias and endogeneity is constructed to capture a seller's strategic behavior and examine how auction outcomes are related to this behavior. Based on the estimated model, we then conduct a counterfactual analysis. We find a tradeoff between the expected revenue and sale duration for the three listing formats.

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  • Chen, Kong-Pin & Lai, Hung-pin & Yu, Ya-Ting, 2018. "The seller's listing strategy in online auctions: Evidence from eBay," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 107-144.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:56:y:2018:i:c:p:107-144
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2017.11.003
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    1. Alexander Maslov, 2023. "Auctions versus posted prices in the revenue management of limited inventory," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(3), pages 1476-1490, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Online auction; Listing strategy; Auction outcome; Endogeneity; Special regressor; Counterfactual analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

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