Online labor markets are web-based platforms that enable buyers to identify and contract for IT services with service providers using Buyer-Determined (BD) auctions. BD auctions in online labor markets either follow an open or a sealed bid format. We compare open and sealed bid auctions in...

This research shows that auction duration and description are two essential auction design parameters that function as screening mechanisms for bidder quality on popular online outsourcing platforms that use buyer-determined reverse auctions in order to find service providers. Using data from a...

Bidders frequently overpay in auctions, a phenomenon termed the “Winner’s Curse.” Vickrey’s second-price auctions only lessen the winner’s curse; they do not eliminate it. Overpayment is partly due to an endowment effect; bidders develop a sense of psychological ownership toward a...