Mechanisms where intermediaries charge a commission fee and have the sellers set the price are widely used in practice e.g. by real estate agents, stock brokers, art galleries, or auction houses. We model competition between intermediaries in a dynamic random matching model, where in every...

Die Erwerbsnebenkosten in Deutschland sind hoch und stellen eine wesentliche Hürde für die Wohneigentumsbildung dar. Zu den Erwerbsnebenkosten zählen, neben der Grunderwerbsteuer und den Notarkosten, auch die Maklergebühren, die Käufer in einigen Bundesländern mit bis zu 7,14 Prozent der...

For many products, platforms enable sellers to transact with buyers. We show that the competitive conditions among sellers shape the market structure in platform industries. If product market competition is tough, sellers avoid competitors by joining different platforms. This allows platforms to...

This paper estimates the cost of using simple percentage fees rather than the broker optimal Bayesian mechanism, using data for real estate transactions in Boston in the mid-1990s. This counterfactual analysis shows that interme- diaries using the best percentage fee mechanisms with fees ranging...