Intellectual Property (IP) core used in computing system-on-chip provides a unique blend of yielding enhanced design productivity with reduced design cycle time. However, leveraging benefits of IP core require protection against threats from both seller’s and buyer’s perspective. This paper proposes a novel symmetrical IP core protectionmethodology that embeds a buyer fingerprint and seller wat...

Recently both the range and the value of objects sold by auction have grown tremendously. An auction is an exchange mechanism with asymmetric information. Auctions are so popular because when the seller is unsure about the value that bidders assign to the sold objects, one possible way to reveal the bidder who is willing to pay the highest price for the object is to apply an appropriate auction...

We consider a simple bilateral trading game between a seller and a buyer who have private valuations for an indivisible good. The seller makes a price o¤er which the buyer can either accept or reject. If the seller can observe the valuation of the buyer (if information is symmetric), then the trading outcome is trivially e¢ cient. If the seller can not observe the valuation (if information is a...

Economists have long recognized the importance of trust in trade and economic development, but few empirical studies address how trust is maintained and enhanced. We set up a rational expectation model that allows the marketplace to boost trust via buyer insurance or seller penalty. The model shows that buyer insurance will reduce seller trustworthiness in equilibrium because insurance increase...

How shoppers react to an empty shelf is an ongoing concern in naturally occurring markets. The anticipation of stockouts impacts where customers shop, which in turn affects optimal prices and inventory choices. In this paper we develop a differentiated product duopoly model of this situation. Theoretically, market outcomes hinge on the cost to the shopper of visiting a second seller after exper...

Can the mere name of a seller determine his trustworthiness in the eye of the consumer? In 10 studies (total N = 608) we explored username complexity and trustworthiness of eBay seller profiles. Name complexity was manipulated through variations in username pronounceability and length. These dimensions had strong, independent effects on trustworthiness, with sellers with easy-to-pronounce or sh...

Iterative auctions can reach an outcome before all bidders have revealed all their preference information. This can decrease costs associated with communication, deliberation, and loss of privacy. We propose an explicit cost model that is inspired by single-item Internet auctions, such as those taking place on auction sites (eBay) or via informal communication (craigslist, mailing lists). A non...

We consider a seller who faces several buyers and lacks access to an institution to credibly close a sale. If buyers anticipate that the seller may negotiate further, they will prefer to wait before making their best and final offers. This in turn induces the seller to bargain at length with buyers, even if doing so is costly. When the seller’s cost of soliciting another round of offers is eith...

This paper introduces a cost of contracting that originates from the possibility that a contracting partner may be able to …nd and exploit loopholes in contractual formulations. A potential buyer and seller want to trade a widget and prior to trade the seller can make an investment to create an improved version of the widget. We assume that buyer and seller cannot be sure that this improved wid...

In this work we propose and analyze a model which addresses the pulsing behavior of sellers in an online auction (store). This pulsing behavior is observed when sellers switch between advertising and processing states. We assert that a seller switches her state in order to maximize her profit, and further that this switch can be identified through the seller’s reputation. We show that for each ...