Feedback mechanisms that allow partners to rate each other after a transaction are considered crucial for the success of anonymous internet trading platforms. We document an asymmetry in the feedback behavior on eBay, propose an explanation based on the micro structure of the feedback mechanism...

We investigate the simultaneous impact of output and input market imperfections on the characteristics and size of regional economic activity. Firms, producing imperfect Substitutes, face product specific demand shocks which translate into firm-specific shocks. The more different the products...

We analyze the possibility and consequences of coalition-formation amongst suppliers of retail services. We first provide a framework in which producers of Substitutes have an incentive to Cluster in market places in order to attract consumers dispersed in space. Owing to spatial externalities,...

eBay's feedback mechanism is considered crucial to establishing and maintaining trust on the world's largest trading platform. The effects of a user's reputation on the probability of sale and on prices are at the center of a large number of studies. More recent theoretical work considers...

We study a differentiated product market in which an investor initially owns a controlling stake in one of two competing firms and may acquire a non-controlling or a controlling stake in a competitor, either directly using her own assets, or indirectly via the controlled firm. While industry...