Quantifying the welfare effects of the buy-it-now option on Ebay
Prof. Shuo JIANG
Assistant Professor
The Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics
Xiamen University
Date: 15 May 2026 (Friday)
Time: 14:30-16:00
Venue: E22-G015
Host: Prof. Sunny HUANG, Associate Professor in Business Economics
Abstract
One important innovation in online auctions is the “buy-it-now”auction (ABIN) format. Based on a simple theoretical model, we establish identification results for the model primitives of the ABIN under two data environments: (i) ABIN data only, and (ii) both ABIN and pure regular auction (PRA) data. We also identify the counterfactual welfare effects of the buy-it-now option for both buyers and sellers. Using both ABIN and PRA data, we propose estimators for the model primitives and the associated counterfactual welfare effects. We apply our methods to eBay wristwatch sales data and identify seller characteristics associated with greater impatience.
Speaker
Prof. Shuo JIANG is an Assistant Professor at WISE of Xiamen University. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from University of Washington in 2021. He is an applied econometrician with broad interests in econometrics and empirical industrial organization. His work has been published in Quantitative Economics. He is the PI of several granted research projects including the NSFC young scholar project.
All are welcome!
