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Search and Information Frictions on Global E-Commerce Platforms: Evidence from AliExpress / Jie Bai, Maggie Chen, Jin Liu, Xiaosheng Mu, Daniel Yi Xu.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Bai, Jie.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28100.
- NBER working paper series no. w28100
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.
- Summary:
- We study how search and information frictions shape market dynamics in global e-commerce. Observational data and self-collected quality measures from AliExpress establish the existence of search and information frictions. A randomized experiment that offers new exporters exogenous demand and information shocks demonstrates the potential role of sales accumulation in enhancing seller visibility and overcoming these demand frictions. However, we show theoretically and quantitatively that this demand-reinforcement mechanism is undermined by the large number of online exporters. Our structural model rationalizes the experimental findings and quantifies efficiency gains from reducing the number of inactive sellers.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- November 2020.
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