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Are things only worth what people are willing to pay for them? Tim Harford explains why a method of buying and selling that originated in ancient times has endured to the present day, and is now underpinning the success of some of the internet's most powerful brands.

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10 minutes

Last on

Mon 17 Feb 2020 04:50GMT

Image credit

An auctioneer in action at Sotheby's in London (Credit:Β Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Sotheby's)

Sources

Ralph Cassady Auctions and Auctioneering Berkeley: University of California Press 1967 pp33-36

Brian Learmount The History of the Auction London: Barnard and Learmount 1985 p84

Brian Learmount The History of the Auction London: Barnard and Learmount 1985 p84

John McMillan Reinventing the Bazaar: A natural history of markets New York: WW Norton 2002 and β€œβ€ The New York Times Video 23 Dec 2014

William Vickrey, 1961 β€œCounterspeculation, Auctions and Competitive Sealed Tenders,” Journal of Finance, 16, 8β€”39.

Paul Klemperer, 2002. "What Really Matters in Auction Design." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16 (1): 169-189. DOI: 10.1257/0895330027166

Ken Binmore, Paul Klemperer β€œThe Biggest Auction Ever: The Sale of the British 3G Telecom Licences”

,

Google has a video tutorial explaining the workings of the . For a more academic discussion, Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian published an analysis of the auction as it was in 2009. Hal Varian β€œPosition Auctions” International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2007, vol. 25, issue 6, 1163-1178

Rachel Lerman β€œGoogle reports $7.1 billion profit, but still falls short on third-quarter expectations” Associated Press 28 October 2019

Jasmine EnbergΒ  β€œβ€ eMarketer Mar 28, 2019

Jack Nicas β€œGoogle Uses Its Search Engine to Hawk Its Products; Google buys millions of its own search ads, competing with customers and promoting its products atop search results” The Wall Street Journal 19 January 2017

Broadcasts

  • Sat 15 Feb 2020 05:50GMT
  • Sat 15 Feb 2020 14:50GMT
  • Sun 16 Feb 2020 14:50GMT
  • Sun 16 Feb 2020 15:50GMT
  • Sun 16 Feb 2020 22:50GMT
  • Mon 17 Feb 2020 04:50GMT

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