IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zur/econwp/405.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Markets and transaction costs

Author

Listed:
  • Simon Jantschgi
  • Heinrich H. Nax
  • Bary S. R. Pradelski
  • Marek Pycia

Abstract

Transaction costs are omnipresent in markets yet are often omitted in economic models. We show that their presence can fundamentally alter incentives and welfare in markets in which the price equates supply and demand. We categorize transaction costs into two types. Asymptotically uninfluenceable transaction costs—such as fixed and price fees—preserve the key asymptotic properties of markets without transaction costs, namely strategyproofness, efficiency, and robustness to misspecified beliefs and to aggregate uncertainty. In contrast, influenceable transaction costs—such as spread fees—lead to complex strategic behavior (which we call price guessing) and may result in severe market failure. In our analysis of optimal design we focus on transaction costs that are fees collected by a platform as revenue. We show how optimal design depends on the traders’ beliefs. In particular, with common prior beliefs, any asymptotically uninfluenceable fee schedule can be scaled to be optimal, while purely influenceable fee schedules lead to zero revenue. Our insights extend beyond markets equalizing demand and supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Jantschgi & Heinrich H. Nax & Bary S. R. Pradelski & Marek Pycia, 2022. "Markets and transaction costs," ECON - Working Papers 405, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Sep 2022.
  • Handle: RePEc:zur:econwp:405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/217044/7/econwp405.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erik Eyster & Michele Piccione, 2013. "An Approach to Asset Pricing Under Incomplete and Diverse Perceptions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(4), pages 1483-1506, July.
    2. Leininger, W. & Linhart, P. B. & Radner, R., 1989. "Equilibria of the sealed-bid mechanism for bargaining with incomplete information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 63-106, June.
    3. Rustichini, Aldo & Satterthwaite, Mark A & Williams, Steven R, 1994. "Convergence to Efficiency in a Simple Market with Incomplete Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(5), pages 1041-1063, September.
    4. Tymon Tatur, 2005. "On the Trade off Between Deficit and Inefficiency and the Double Auction with a Fixed Transaction Fee," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(2), pages 517-570, March.
    5. Noussair, Charles & Robin, Stephane & Ruffieux, Bernard, 1998. "The effect of transaction costs on double auction markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 221-233, August.
    6. Wolitzky, Alexander, 2016. "Mechanism design with maxmin agents: theory and an application to bilateral trade," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(3), September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shneyerov, Artyom & Wong, Adam Chi Leung, 2010. "The rate of convergence to perfect competition of matching and bargaining mechanisms," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 1164-1187, May.
    2. , & , A., 2007. "Efficiency in repeated trade with hidden valuations," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 2(3), September.
    3. Song, Yangwei, 2022. "Approximate Bayesian Implementation and Exact Maxmin Implementation: An Equivalence," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 362, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    4. Simon Jantschgi & Heinrich H. Nax & Bary S. R. Pradelski & Marek Pycia, 2022. "On market prices in double auctions," ECON - Working Papers 404, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    5. Hu Lu & Jacques Robert, 2000. "Optimal Trading Mechanisms with Ex Ante Unidentified Traders," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1612, Econometric Society.
    6. Blumrosen, Liad & Dobzinski, Shahar, 2021. "(Almost) efficient mechanisms for bilateral trading," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 369-383.
    7. Pavlo Prokopovych & Nicholas C. Yannelis, 2022. "On nondegenerate equilibria of double auctions with several buyers and a price floor," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(2), pages 625-654, April.
    8. Shneyerov, Artyom & Wong, Adam Chi Leung, 2010. "Bilateral matching and bargaining with private information," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 748-762, March.
    9. Shafer, Rachel C., 2020. "Minimax regret and failure to converge to efficiency in large markets," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 281-287.
    10. Schottmüller, Christoph, 2023. "Optimal information structures in bilateral trade," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 18(1), January.
    11. Shneyerov, Art & Wong, Adam Chi Leung, 2007. "The Rate of Convergence to Perfect Competition of a Simple Matching and Bargaining Mechanism," Microeconomics.ca working papers shneyerov-07-05-01-03-43-, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 01 May 2007.
    12. Kadan, Ohad, 2007. "Equilibrium in the two-player, k-double auction with affiliated private values," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 495-513, July.
    13. Zacharias, Eleftherios & Williams, Steven R., 2001. "Ex Post Efficiency in the Buyer's Bid Double Auction When Demand Can Be Arbitrarily Larger Than Supply," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 175-190, March.
    14. Song, Yangwei, 2023. "Approximate Bayesian implementation and exact maxmin implementation: An equivalence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 56-87.
    15. Crawford, Vincent P., 2021. "Efficient mechanisms for level-k bilateral trading," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 80-101.
    16. Bichler, Martin & Kohring, Nils & Oberlechner, Matthias & Pieroth, Fabian R., 2023. "Learning equilibrium in bilateral bargaining games," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(2), pages 660-678.
    17. Muthoo, Abhinay & Mutuswami, Suresh, 2005. "Competition and Efficiency in Markets with Quality Uncertainty," Economics Discussion Papers 9981, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    18. Shira Fano & Marco LiCalzi & Paolo Pellizzari, 2013. "Convergence of outcomes and evolution of strategic behavior in double auctions," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 513-538, July.
    19. Loertscher, Simon & Mezzetti, Claudio, 2021. "A dominant strategy, double clock auction with estimation-based tatonnement," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 16(3), July.
    20. Ohad Kadan, 2004. "Equilibrium in the Two Player, k-Double Auction with Affiliate Private Values," Working Papers 2004.12, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transaction costs; markets; demand and supply; incentives; efficiency; robustness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D47 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Market Design
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zur:econwp:405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Severin Oswald (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seizhch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.