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What’s that got to do with the price of fish? Buyers behavior on the Ancona fish market

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  • Gallegati, Mauro
  • Giulioni, Gianfranco
  • Kirman, Alan
  • Palestrini, Antonio

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the Ancona wholesale fish market (MERITAN) where transactions take place in three simultaneous Dutch auctions. Our objective is to characterize the behavior of market participants and, in particular, that of buyers in such a market structure. Our analysis shows that buyer–seller relationships are less important than in a pairwise bargaining market such as the Marseille Fish market but that a significant amount of “loyalty” is still present under the auction mechanism. We provide an explanation of the “declining price paradox” for the fish market of Ancona by linking the rule used by the buyers to set their bid to the relationship between the variation in the price of the last transactions in the day and the quantity of fish available on that day. In fact, the average price tends to increase for the last transactions on days characterized by a limited supply of fish.

Suggested Citation

  • Gallegati, Mauro & Giulioni, Gianfranco & Kirman, Alan & Palestrini, Antonio, 2011. "What’s that got to do with the price of fish? Buyers behavior on the Ancona fish market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 20-33.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:80:y:2011:i:1:p:20-33
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.01.011
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    1. Complexity, & BBC bias
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2016-01-25 20:07:40

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    3. Sylvain Mignot & Gabriele Tedeschi & Annick Vignes, 2012. "An Agent Based Model of Switching: The Case of Boulogne S/mer Fish Market," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 15(2), pages 1-3.
    4. Daniele Giachini, 2018. "Rationality and Asset Prices under Belief Heterogeneity," LEM Papers Series 2018/07, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    5. Sanna Laksa & Daniel Marszalec, 2020. "Morning-Fresh: Declining Prices and the Right-to-Choose in a Faroese Fish Market," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1141, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    6. Wolff, François-Charles & Asche, Frank, 2022. "Pricing heterogeneity and transaction mode: Evidence from the French fish market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 67-79.
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    8. Guerci, E. & Kirman, A. & Moulet, S., 2014. "Learning to bid in sequential Dutch auctions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 374-393.
    9. Federica De Leo & Pier Paolo Miglietta & Slađana Pavlinović, 2014. "Marine Fisheries and Mariculture in Croatia: Economic and Trade Analysis," Journal of Economic and Financial Studies (JEFS), LAR Center Press, vol. 2(6), pages 53-61, December.
    10. Frédéric Salladarré & Patrice Guillotreau & Patrice Loisel & Pierrick Ollivier, 2015. "The declining price anomaly in sequential auctions with asymmetric buyers: Evidence from the Nephrops norvegicus market in France," Working Papers hal-01147207, HAL.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wholesale fish market; Dutch auction;

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • Q22 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Fishery

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