All Outputs (12)

The Limits of Limited Commitment (2025)
Journal Article
Bizzotto, J., Hinnosaar, T., & Vigier, A. (in press). The Limits of Limited Commitment. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics,

We study limited strategic leadership. A collection of subsets covering the leader's action space determines her commitment opportunities. We characterize the outcomes resulting from all possible commitment structures of this kind. If the commitment... Read More about The Limits of Limited Commitment.

Price Setting on a Network (2024)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, T. (in press). Price Setting on a Network. RAND Journal of Economics,

I study price setting within a network of interconnected monopolists. Some firms possess stronger commitment or bargaining power than others, enabling them to influence the pricing decisions of other firms. While it is well-understood that multiple m... Read More about Price Setting on a Network.

Optimal Sequential Contests (2024)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, T. (2024). Optimal Sequential Contests. Theoretical Economics, 19(1), 207-244. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3119014

I study sequential contests where the efforts of earlier players may be disclosed to later players by nature or by design. The model has many applications, including rent seeking, R\&D, oligopoly, public goods provision, and tragedy of the commons. I... Read More about Optimal Sequential Contests.

Pricing Novel Goods (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Giovannoni, F., & Hinnosaar, T. (2023, July). Pricing Novel Goods. Presented at EC 2023 - Proceedings of the 24th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, London, UK

Consider a pharmaceutical company (the seller) contemplating supplying a vaccine for a new disease to a health authority (the buyer). The production cost is uncertain ex-ante and unverifiable ex-post. Both parties prefer an early agreement. But an ea... Read More about Pricing Novel Goods.

Externalities in knowledge production: evidence from a randomized field experiment (2021)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, M., Hinnosaar, T., Kummer, M. E., & Slivko, O. (2022). Externalities in knowledge production: evidence from a randomized field experiment. Experimental Economics, 25(2), 706-733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-021-09730-x

Are there positive or negative externalities in knowledge production? We analyze whether current contributions to knowledge production increase or decrease the future growth of knowledge. To assess this, we use a randomized field experiment that adde... Read More about Externalities in knowledge production: evidence from a randomized field experiment.

Wikipedia matters (2021)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, M., Hinnosaar, T., Kummer, M., & Slivko, O. (2021). Wikipedia matters. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 32(3), 657-669. https://doi.org/10.1111/jems.12421

We document a causal impact of online user-generated information on real-world economic outcomes. In particular, we conduct a randomized field experiment to test whether additional content on Wikipedia pages about cities affects tourists' choices of... Read More about Wikipedia matters.

Robust pricing with refunds (2020)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, T., & Kawai, K. (2020). Robust pricing with refunds. RAND Journal of Economics, 51(4), 1014-1036. https://doi.org/10.1111/1756-2171.12348

Before purchase, a buyer of an experience good learns about the product's fit using various information sources, including some of which the seller may be unaware of. The buyer, however, can conclusively learn the fit only after purchasing and trying... Read More about Robust pricing with refunds.

Stackelberg Independence (2020)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, T. (2021). Stackelberg Independence. Journal of Industrial Economics, 69(1), 214-238. https://doi.org/10.1111/joie.12244

The standard model of sequential capacity choices is the Stackelberg quantity leadership model with linear demand. I show that under the standard assumptions, leaders' actions are informative about market conditions and independent of lead-ers' belie... Read More about Stackelberg Independence.

Calendar mechanisms (2017)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, T. (2017). Calendar mechanisms. Games and Economic Behavior, 104, 252-270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2017.04.004

I study the dynamic mechanism design problem of a monopolist selling a fixed number of service slots to randomly arriving, short-lived buyers with heterogeneous values. The fully optimal mechanism is a non-standard auction in which bidders' payoffs a... Read More about Calendar mechanisms.

On the Impossibility of Protecting Risk‐takers (2017)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, T. (2018). On the Impossibility of Protecting Risk‐takers. Economic Journal, 128(611), 1531-1544. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12446

Risk‐neutral sellers can extract high profits from risk‐loving buyers using lotteries. To limit risk‐taking, gambling is heavily regulated in most countries. In this article, I show that protecting risk‐loving buyers is essentially impossible. Even i... Read More about On the Impossibility of Protecting Risk‐takers.

Overbooking (2017)
Journal Article
Ely, J. C., Garrett, D. F., & Hinnosaar, T. (2017). Overbooking. Journal of the European Economic Association, 15(6), 1258-1301. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvw025

We consider optimal pricing policies for airlines when passengers are uncertain at the time of ticketing of their eventual willingness to pay for air travel. Auctions at the time of departure efficiently allocate space and a profit maximizing airline... Read More about Overbooking.

Penny auctions (2016)
Journal Article
Hinnosaar, T. (2016). Penny auctions. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 48, 59-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2016.06.005

This paper studies penny auctions, a novel auction format in which every bid increases the price by a small amount, but placing a bid is costly. Outcomes of real-life penny auctions are often surprising. Even when selling cash, the seller may obtain... Read More about Penny auctions.