A research study by two statisticians from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business—Wolfgang Jank and Galit Shmueli—finds that consumers save billions of dollars every year by buying products through the online auction service eBay rather than going through conventional retailers. The study claims to be the first time the overall economic impact of online auctions—specifically eBay—has been quantified.
The findings will be published in “Consumer Surplus in Online Auctions,” (PDF) an article slated to appear in a future issue of the journal Information Systems Research.
