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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:聽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 鈥溾 The New York Times Video 23 Dec 2014

William Vickrey, 1961 鈥淐ounterspeculation, Auctions and Competitive Sealed Tenders,鈥 Journal of Finance, 16, 8鈥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 鈥淭he Biggest Auction Ever: The Sale of the British 3G Telecom Licences鈥

,

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

Rachel Lerman 鈥淕oogle reports $7.1 billion profit, but still falls short on third-quarter expectations鈥 Associated Press 28 October 2019

Jasmine Enberg聽 鈥溾 eMarketer Mar 28, 2019

Jack Nicas 鈥淕oogle 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鈥 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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