Deal Engines: The Science of Auctions, Stock Markets, and E-Markets

Where and how electronic deal making will flourish and common pitfalls for entrepreneurs and investors.

In Deal Engines, leading economist Robert E. Hall explains the underlying principles of auctions and provides sweeping insight for anyone curious to understand and exploit them. Drawing on decades of research that includes Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, Hall explains that how you set up a market has a lot to do with the deals that result. Moving from examples as straightforward as shopping for a car to others as complex as the mechanisms of stock exchanges, he describes the various types of deal engines that can be used to conduct transactions, including auctions, real-time exchanges, and posted-price sales engines. Hall analyzes the qualities of the markets these deal engines give rise to, with an eye to practical outcomes, and provides invaluable information and guidance to everyone from entrepreneurs working on a business plan to buyers on eBay. Originally published in hardcover under the title Digital Dealing.