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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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 ββ The New York Times Video 23 Dec 2014
William Vickrey, 1961 βCounterspeculation, Auctions and Competitive Sealed Tenders,β Journal of Finance, 16, 8β39.
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 βThe Biggest Auction Ever: The Sale of the British 3G Telecom Licencesβ
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Google has a video tutorial explaining the workings of the . For a more academic discussion, Googleβs Chief Economist Hal Varian published an analysis of the auction as it was in 2009. Hal Varian βPosition Auctionsβ International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2007, vol. 25, issue 6, 1163-1178
Rachel Lerman βGoogle reports $7.1 billion profit, but still falls short on third-quarter expectationsβ Associated Press 28 October 2019
Jasmine EnbergΒ ββ eMarketer Mar 28, 2019
Jack Nicas βGoogle 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 resultsβ The Wall Street Journal 19 January 2017
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