Big Data Lunchtime Seminar
- Location
- Strathcona, Strathcona Building - Lecture Theatre 3
- Dates
- Wednesday 11 March 2015 (13:00-14:00)
- Contact
If you would like to attend and join our BIG DATA network which brings together researchers and professional services from across the campus please email Sarah Jeffery.
Dr Pierre-Louis Vezina (Department of Economics) discusses 'Understanding international trade through eBay data'.
It has become almost a mantra of modern policy dialogue to say that the Internet is changing everything. In some cases, the rhetoric of change is just that: rhetoric. However, in the field of online trade the change is real and quantifiable. Our research looked at a dataset covering US business sellers on eBay in 2010 to get a glimpse of what a more connected and frictionless world may entail for small businesses. Technologies such as those available to firms via the eBay platform are likely to be the sort of tools needed to help homemade lemonade brewers reach a global customer base. So the question remains: are merchants using eBay’s technology as a platform to access the world? The answer is a resounding yes! Our research found that a remarkably high 85% of business sellers on eBay were engaged in cross-border sales in 2010. This is much higher than the offline number which varies between 5% and 15%. All in all, eBay data is providing us a new lens to look at the costs inhibiting world trade.