This page collects my work on ticket markets. This market has been of interest to me for a long time, dating back to queues at Ticketmaster kiosks for concert tickets as a teenager, and going with my dad to see the Mets clinch the 1986 pennant with scalped tickets.
For my views on this market overall, the best place to look is my 2019 keynote address at the Federal Trade Commission. Also fun is the 2017 Freakonomics podcast episode, “Why is the Live-Event Ticket Market So Screwed Up?” My 2023 research paper on auctions and “Bob the Broker” was a labor of love, even if auctions in the primary-market for concert tickets have faded from use. If you want to show your students that “auctions work” at discovering prices, check out Figure 1.
Selected Materials
Research Paper
Primary-Market Auctions for Event Tickets: Eliminating the Rents of “Bob the Broker”?
Coauthors: Aditya BhaveAmerican Economic Journal: Microeconomics, (2023): 15, No. 1, 142-170.
Why Is the Live-Event Ticket Market So Screwed Up?
Slides as PDF
FTC Keynote Talk, How to Fix the Market for Event Tickets
[PDF] [Slides] [All Related Material]
Podcasts
Market Design and Live Events
American Economic Association Research Highlights Podcast, hosted by Tyler Smith, March 20, 2023.[Podcast] [All Related Material]
Why Are Bots Buying Sneakers?
Slate, What Next: TBD Podcast, hosted by Seth Stevenson, October 29, 2021.Podcast Transcript
[Podcast] [All Related Material]
Why Is the Live-Event Ticket Market So Screwed Up?
Freakonomics Podcast, hosted by Stephen J. Dubner, December 6, 2017.Podcast Transcript
[Podcast] [All Related Material]
Talks and Public Discussion
FTC Keynote Talk, How to Fix the Market for Event Tickets
FTC "That's the Ticket" Workshop on Consumer Protection Issues into the Event Tickets Market, June 11 2019.PowerPoint Slides with Speaking Notes
Slides as PDF
Slides as PDF with Speaking Notes
[All Related Material]
Press
The Great Ticket Disaster
Scholastic Scope Magazine, Mary Kate Frank, October 2023.Related Article in Scholastic Action Magazine
[PDF] [All Related Material]
How the Dysfunctional Ticketing Market Harms Artists & Fans — And What Can Be Done to Fix It
Coauthors: Taylor MimsBillboard, July 18, 2023.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Angry Taylor Swift Fans Push Lawmakers to Take on Ticketmaster
Coauthors: Andrea Salcedo and Julian MarkThe Washington Post, June 12, 2023.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Two Choices for Selling Tickets
Coauthors: Timothy TaylorConversable Economist, April 11, 2023.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Beyoncé Is Going on Tour. Is Ticketmaster Ready?
Coauthors: Julian Mark and Bethonie ButlerThe Washington Post, February 2023.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Everyone Hates Ticketmaster. Is Everyone Wrong?
Coauthors: August BrownLos Angeles Times, January 2023.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Taylor Swift’s Ticketmaster Meltdown: What Happened? Who’s to Blame?
Coauthors: Julian MarkThe Washington Post, November 2022.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
How Is This Legal?
Coauthors: Byard DuncanReveal News, March 2021.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Frustrated with Event Ticketing? New Ventures Try to Help
Coauthors: Jamie StengleAP News, August 24, 2019.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Performance Ticket Auctions: Going, Going, Gone
Coauthors: Laurent BelsieThe NBER Digest, December 2017.
[PDF] [All Related Material]
Fans Watch Taylor Swift, Economists Watch the Fans
Coauthors: Scott Duke KominersBloomberg, August 29, 2017.
[All Related Material]
