Searching and Learning in Internet Auctions:The eBay ExampleInaugural-Dissertationzur Erlangung des GradesDoctor oeconomiae publicae (Dr. oec. publ.)an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit˜at Munc˜ hen2005vorgelegt vonKatharina SailerReferent: Prof. Sven Rady, PhDKorreferent: Prof. Dr. Joachim WinterPromotionsabschlussberatung: 08. Februar 2006AcknowledgementsThis work beneflted from the input of many people during my stays at the Kiel Institute forWorld Economics - where it was started ofi -, the London School of Economics - where I learntmore about empirical industrial organization and the econometrics of auctions -, and last butnotleasttheUniversityofMunich-wherethedissertationflnallygainedshapeandwasflnished.FirstofallIwanttothankmysupervisorsattheUniversityofMunich-SvenRady,JoachimWinter, and Stefan Mittnik - as well as Toker Doganoglu for their advice and encouragement.Sven Rady provided very detailed and helpful comments on all chapters of this dissertation.At the IfW, Henning Klodt was always ready to discuss my (changing) ideas, gave advice, andencouraged and helped me to pursue my projects. Finally, I want to thank Martin Pesendorferfor supporting this work at a very preliminary stage and for giving advice with the modellingas well as with the relevant literature.The data collection could not have been done without the collaboration of Albrecht Mengeland Sandrine Pierloz. I owe special thanks to them for their very dedicated help.