We investigate how information goods are priced and diffused over links in a network. Buyers have idiosyncratic consumption values for information and, after acquiring it, can replicate it and resell copies to uninformed neighbors. A partition of the network captures the effects of network architecture and locations of information sellers on player profits and the structure of competing diffusi...

Trading goods online has numerous advantages. One that is particularly compelling is that online merchants can offer their goods at lower prices compared to their offline counterparts. The physical distance between buyers and sellers, however, also leads to problems of trust. Consider the online auction site eBay as an example: its procedure is such that the winning bidder (henceforth the buyer...

In markets for credence goods sellers are better informed than their customers about the quality that yields the highest surplus from trade. This paper studies second-degree price-discrimination in such markets. It shows that discrimination regards the amount of advice offered to customers and that it leads to a different distortion depending on the main source of heterogeneity among consumers....

This paper describes an application of agent-based modeling to investigate the effect of a distance-based transaction cost on trade. Long-distance trade is rapidly increasing, but may ultimately be constrained by our ability to move material goods between sellers and buyers. Unlike information exchange, trade in material goods is dependent on the price of oil and vulnerable to future scarcities...

We propose a mechanism for auctioning bundles of multiple divisible goods. Such a mechanism is very useful for allocation of bandwidth in a network where the buyers want the same amount of bandwidth on each link in their route. We allow for buyers to specify multiple routes (corresponding to a source-destination pair). The total flow can then be split among these multiple routes. We first propo...

Medicines, being regulated goods, cannot be treated as mere trade commodities but should be managed as a health utility. Makers and sellers of drugs have to be licensed, and the ways drugs are advertised and prescribed must be regulated. But enforcement of the rules is weak. In part, the reason may be that personalities take precedence over issues. This is important in the context of this edito...

The paper deals with different approaches to the definition of ecommerce, including special mechanisms for the distribution of goods and payments, such as auction model. Different formats of auctions that change welfare of their participants are investigated. Software modules were developed for researching the effectivenes of double electronic Vickrey auction. It is defined that in double Vickr...

This paper develops a welfare theoretic framework for interpreting evidence on the impacts of public programs on housing markets. We extend Rosen’s hedonic model to explain how housing prices capitalize exogenous shocks to local public goods and externalities. The model predicts that trading between heterogeneous buyers and sellers will drive a wedge between these “capitalization effects” and w...

Internet Auction is a one of the most successful e-Commerce markets. Recently, it has been reported that the trades having buyout options are increasing. A " buyout option " is available in many Internet auction sites. When a seller uses a buyout option, a " buyout price (buy price) " of the good is set by the seller. If a buyer submits a bid equal to the buyout price, the auction immediately e...

Service guarantee is a dilemma for e-sellers. As it will increase buyers’ purchase intentions, but it may leads to more return goods too. Our research makes an effort to study the influence mechanism of service guarantee, in order to help e-seller to make their retail decisions. The results of our empirical analysis indicate that the higher the strength of service guarantee is, the higher degre...