The Impact of Socioeconomic and Cultural Differences on Online Trade

We use eBay data to investigate how within-U.S. trade is influenced by differences in socioeconomic characteristics. States’ similarity cultural characteristics (ethnicity, religious affiliations, and political behavior) predicts online trade; similarly within product categories. The culture-trade relationship stronger for transactions with sellers who lack extensive reputations or certification, suggesting that consumers infer seller trustworthiness from similarity. There no correlation between buyer satisfaction, perceived are not validated actual transactions. This paper was accepted Alfonso Gambardella, business strategy. Supplemental Material: files appendix available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4681 .