A Look at the Game Theory of Online Auctions: The Choice Between End-Time Formats on Yahoo! Auctions

Thesis advisor: Hideo KonishiOnline auctions have many different formats. Each of these affect the ways in which users bid strategically. One example of this is the end-time format. Some sites, like eBay, use a hard close, under which there is a strict end-time and the highest bidder at that time wins. Others, like Amazon, have an extended end-time format. It has been shown that these differences do, in fact, appear to change how bidders behave. This paper uses data obtained from Yahoo! Auctions, where both formats are used, to examine the impact these differences have on the final price of an auction.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics Honors Program