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Emerging behavior in electronic bidding

I. Yang, H. Jeong, B. Kahng, A. -L. Barabasi

cond-mat.stat-mecharXiv:cond-mat/0301513

Abstract

We characterize the statistical properties of a large number of agents on two major online auction sites. The measurements indicate that the total number of bids placed in a single category and the number of distinct auctions frequented by a given agent follow power-law distributions, implying that a few agents are responsible for a significant fraction of the total bidding activity on the online market. We find that these agents exert an un-proportional influence on the final price of the auctioned items. This domination of online auctions by an unusually active minority may be a generic feature of all online mercantile processes.

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