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Agents’ ability to manage information in centralized markets: Comparing two wholesale fish markets

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  • Giulioni, Gianfranco
  • Bucciarelli, Edgardo

Abstract

In this paper, we perform an empirical investigation to detect if and how agents’ behavior changes with the amount of available information they have. To this aim, we use data from two wholesale fish markets of different thicknesses. We tackle the issue by investigating features such as the dynamics of the structure of attendance in auctions, the varieties of fish presentations during the seller’s turn and the presence of long-term relationships between buyers and sellers. We perform the investigation in this way instead of focusing on the dispersion and dynamics of prices to prevent unobserved quality differences of the traded fish varieties from biasing the results of the analysis. The results of our investigation are consistent with a situation in which the magnitude of phenomena like buyers’ loyalty to sellers and agents following rules of thumb increases with the market thickness.

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  • Giulioni, Gianfranco & Bucciarelli, Edgardo, 2011. "Agents’ ability to manage information in centralized markets: Comparing two wholesale fish markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 34-49.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:80:y:2011:i:1:p:34-49
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.01.012
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    1. Carmen Pedroza-Gutiérrez & Juan M Hernández, 2017. "Social networks, market transactions, and reputation as a central resource. The Mercado del Mar, a fish market in central Mexico," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, October.
    2. K. Subramanian & M. Bavinck & J. Scholtens & H. M. Hapke & A. Jyotishi, 2023. "How Seafood Wholesale Markets Matter for Urban Food Security: Evidence from Chennai, India," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(3), pages 579-601, June.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Carmen Pedroza-Gutiérrez & Juan M. Hernández, 2020. "Social Networks and Supply Chain Management in Fish Trade," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, June.
    6. Amalendu Jyotishi & Joeri Scholtens & Gopakumar Viswanathan & Priya Gupta & Maarten Bavinck, 2021. "A tale of fish in two cities: consumption patterns of low-income households in South India," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(2), pages 240-257, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wholesale fish market; Dutch auction; Loyalty; Habits; Rules of thumb;
    All these keywords.

    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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