Selling "Money" on eBay: A field study of surplus division

Gizatulina, Alia and Gorelkina, Olga ORCID: 0000-0002-0873-8873 (2021) Selling "Money" on eBay: A field study of surplus division. JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR & ORGANIZATION, 181 (3004). pp. 19-38.

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Abstract

We study the division of trade surplus in a natural field experiment on German eBay. Acting as a seller, we offer Amazon gift cards with face values between 5 and 500 Euro. eBay users, the subjects of our experiment, make price offers according to the Buy-it-Now or Best Offer trading protocol. Using a novel decomposition method, we infer the trade surplus from the data and find that on average the buyers offer one quarter of the surplus to the seller. Additionally, we document: (i) insignificant effects of stake size; (ii) poor use of strategically relevant public information; and (iii) differences between East and West German subjects.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Source info: Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper No. 3004
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Field experiment, Surplus division, Bargaining, eBay, Online trade, Ultimatum game
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	09 May 2018 09:44
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 06:34
DOI:	10.1016/j.jebo.2020.11.029
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3021071