Hidden “junk” fees have the potential to distort competition, creating high costs to consumers. However, regulating them can lead to adverse effects, especially in complex markets with intermediaries where they are most prevalent. To explore the equilibrium adjustments of regulating hidden...

Purpose Intrinsic motivation affects job satisfaction and turnover intention. Still, previous motivational studies among real estate brokers (brokers) have primarily focused on extrinsic rewards, leaving intrinsic rewards/motivation practically unexplored. The purpose of this study is therefore...

Top income inequality in the United States has increased considerably within occupations. This phenomenon has led to a search for a common explanation. We instead develop a theory where increases in income inequality originating within a few occupations can “spill over” through consumption...

This paper studies a recent legal reform in Germany, which aims to lower commission rates of real estate agents by raising the cost salience of sellers. I find that the reform has backfired and real estate agents have exploited the transition to increase their commission rates. The findings...

This study aims to analyse the details of the stages in the decision-making process of real estate agents to reconcile the landlords and expatriate tenants' criteria and to explain these relationships with the principal-agent theory. Using a qualitative approach, the research engaged in...

The Korean real estate brokerage sector has grown in size thanks to rising real estate prices and transaction volumes. Despite its importance, the industry offers low consumer utility and relatively slow innovation due to lack of incentives for competition in the quality of service and prices...

We design and implement a correspondence experiment to test for differences in real estate agent response across client race, ethnicity, gender, and side of market. Real estate agents are more likely to respond to white clients than Black or Hispanic clients– whites have a 32.18% higher...

Workers often have unobserved characteristics, e.g., soft skills, that are important for teamwork. In this paper, we formulate and estimate a model of teamwork that imposes no functional form restrictions on the complementarity between different unobserved types of workers. Our modeling...

We compare outcomes obtained by sellers who listed their home on a newly developed For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) web site versus those who used an agent and the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). We do not find support for the hypothesis that listing on the MLS helps sellers obtain a significantly...

Real estate agents typically receive commissions based on a fixed percentage of home price purchases. Because housing prices vary across markets, one might expect that realtors have higher earnings in high-priced markets. Prior work by Hsieh and Moretti (2003) suggests that entry among realtors...

In this study, we investigate the use of professional Social Networking Sites (SNS) on performance in commercial real estate brokerage. Using LinkedIn followers as a proxy for an agent's professional social network, we find that listing agents with a larger professional online social network...

Women are better at multitasking than men, right? This stereotype spurs a great deal of public interest. A stream of psychology studies has explored the question using lab experiments with stylized tasks and found inconclusive evidence. We use multitasking as a lens to understand the gender...

This paper uses a direct measure of efficiency to examine the relationship between market structure and the performance of brokerage houses in Turkey. This methodology involves two stages: First, a stochastic translog cost frontier is specified to obtain a direct measure of efficiency. Second,...

This paper focuses on those structural models with an endogenous default barrier where firms optimally choose a default boundary so as to maximize the equity value. The analysis commences to cover avowedly theoretical frameworks from pioneering works by Black-Scholes (1973) and Merton (1974) on...

Despite the prevalence and high cost of real estate agents, there is limited empirical evidence as to the nature or efficacy of their services. In this paper we estimate real estate agents' value-added when either selling or buying homes using data from three large multiple listing services...

We study the effect on economic outcomes resulting from reputation in a market and related locational advantage of intermediaries through the lens of brokered transactions in the commercial real estate market. Specifically, we explore how the locational advantage generated by a reputation for...

Real estate agents typically receive commissions based on a fixed percentage of home price purchases. Because housing prices vary across markets, one might expect that realtors have higher earnings in high-priced markets. Prior work by Hsieh and Moretti (2003) suggests that entry among realtors...

Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the occupational life cycle of Swedish real estate brokers. Design/methodology/approach Voluntary turnover among real estate brokers could lead to occupational turnover and/or employee turnover and has been described as problematic...

This study examines the effectiveness of virtual tours and digital marketing strategies in enhancing real estate sales using a unique dataset combining MLS data, government-assessed property values, and agents' marketing activities. While virtual tours are often perceived as a powerful tool to...

Motivated by the recent National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement, this note examines the effects of reduced real estate agent commissions on home prices, housing turnover, and consumer welfare. Using a calibrated dynamic structural search model of the housing market, we explore how...

This paper investigates the incentives of agents working with buyers (buying agents) under the fixed percentage commission system (FPCS) and the implications on housing market outcomes. Our model shows that the FPCS without a binding contract between the buyer and the buying agent could produce...

Online businesses have been surging worldwide during the past decade, especially during the recent COVID-19 epidemic. However, the market share of online real estate transactions is still limited, mainly due to the information-asymmetry problem. In this study, we manually collect data on online...

This paper analyzes how the competition among real estate brokers impacts housing prices in a typical sellers’ market in China. In a theoretical model, we discover a broker competition mechanism in which brokers compete for listings by promising higher transaction prices and compete for buyers...

The division of labor allows individuals to focus their time on a narrower band of activities and increase productivity through specialization, but this comes at a cost. When individuals divide labor, they divide value and split the “pie” they help create. In this paper, I formally model...

Airbnb, a prominent sharing-economy platform, offers dwellings for short-term rent. Despite restrictions, some sellers illegally offer their accommodations, taking advantage of a degree of anonymity proffered by the platform to hide from potential enforcement. We study the extent to which...