Essays in English auctions and labor economics

This dissertation evaluates sequential open English auctions and income gaps between Jews and non-Jews in Israel.;The first three chapters use data I collected from used car auctions to investigate the effect of the selling order on the selling price, the jump bidding phenomenon and the effect of uncertainty on auctions.;Chapter one examines the sequence of winning bids to test how the selling order affects the price. The items are randomly ordered, which I use to identify the effect of the ordering. In contrast to many other studies, I find that prices tend to increase as auctions proceed; however, once several items have been sold, there are no changes in bidding behavior or further price increases.;Chapter two explores how strategic bidding affects price determination. I accomplish this by studying the anomalous nature of "jump bidding." Jump bidding occurs when a new offer exceeds the previous offer by more than the minimum bid increment permitted. I find that jumps are an empirical regularity of all items sold and depend on the presale estimate. I suggest a way to use jump biddings to determine whether models that assume private or common valuations better represent open auctions, and conclude that my data are consistent with the latter.;Chapter three explores how uncertainty affects auction outcomes. I demonstrate that, empirically, an increase in uncertainty is associated with an increase in the number of rounds required to sell an object and a decrease in the ratio of the selling price to the presale estimate.;Finally, I (with Gad Levanon) analyze income gaps between Jews and specific minority groups in Israel. We find significant explained and unexplained income gaps favoring Jews. Unexplained gaps are larger for more educated individuals. Jews are disproportionately represented in more lucrative occupations and earn significantly more in them. Muslims suffer from the largest income gaps, while Druze enjoy the lowest income gaps across most of the income distribution, largely due to benefits reaped from army service. Among minorities, Christians are the most educated and concentrated in lucrative occupations; consequently, they enjoy the lowest gaps in the highest income percentiles.