ABSTRACT
The on-line auction site eBay has more than 122 million active users. Every second, $2,390 worth of products-recreational vehicles, high-definition televisions, commemorative coins, T-shirts, condominiums, you name it-are traded. From its beginnings in the United States in 1995, eBay has grown into a global marketing service for individuals and small businesses. Perhaps you have bought or sold something on eBay. If you have, then you have had direct experience with a real-world market very similar, in some ways, to the sort of idealized market that forms the basis for economists’ theory of supply and demand.
