Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/148910 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods No. 2016/20
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
Abstract: 
We study the division of trade surplus in a competitive market environment by conducting a natural field experiment on German eBay. Acting as a seller, we offer Amazon gift cards with face values of up to 500 Euro. Randomly arriving buyers, the subjects of our experiment, make price offers according to eBay rules. Using a novel decomposition method, we infer offered shares of trade surplus and find that the average share proposed to the seller amounts to 29%. Additionally, we document: (i) insignificant effects of stake size; (ii) poor use of strategically relevant public information; and (iii) behavioural differences between East and West German subjects.
Subjects: 
Field experiment
ultimatum game
surplus division
bargaining
Internet trade
eBay
JEL: 
C72
C93
C57
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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