EBAY and the Deadweight Loss from Christmas

A simple empirical project --- Does use of EBAY increase after Christmas? I'm sure it does as people try to unload "bad" christmas gifts but I've never seen the volume dynamics data. I've always argued that EBAY is an example of how capitalism solves problems --- the problem (as pointed out by Joel Waldfogel) is the inefficiency of gift giving in a world where we should just give each other cash! Merry Christmas!

www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/12/25/061225ta_talk_surowiecki

www.bgu.ac.il/~oritt/deadweight.pdf