# Search protocol — WP36 literature review

Date of search: 2026-11-01 (single session). Agent: literature agent for UQO Working Paper 36, "The Hidden Dynamics of Used-Car Markets: Price Discovery, Inventory Liquidity, and Strategic Dealer Behavior".

## Objective

Build a verified bibliography (60–90+ entries, quality over quantity) covering nine topic buckets (A–I, see `evidence_matrix.csv`), establish what is already known about used-car asking-price dynamics, markdowns, exit and liquidity-type measures (industry indices), and state precisely what WP36 adds.

## Databases and tools

| Source | Use | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Crossref REST API (`https://api.crossref.org/works/{doi}`) | Primary verification of every DOI: title, authors, container, year, volume, pages | `curl`/Python `urllib`, sequential, 1 req/s, User-Agent with mailto (first parallel attempt was rate-limited HTTP 429 and re-run sequentially) |
| Crossref bibliographic search (`/works?query.bibliographic=`) | Recover correct DOIs when a candidate DOI resolved to the wrong record (10 cases) or returned 404 (13 cases) | same |
| OpenAlex API (`/works?search=` and `filter=title.search:,publication_year:`) | Confirm venue/volume/pages for pre-DOI articles (Kim 1985, Varian 1980, Kiefer 1988, Thomadsen 2005) | same |
| Semantic Scholar Graph API | Confirm Engel & Rogers 1996 and Case & Shiller 1989 AER records (rate-limited; others fell back to IDEAS/RePEc) | same |
| IDEAS/RePEc handle pages (`ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/...`) | Existence check (HTTP 200 vs 404) for AER/JEL classics without DOI: Bond 1982, Lazear 1986, Genesove & Mayer 1997, Kim 1985, Varian 1980, Engel & Rogers 1996, Case & Shiller 1989, Kiefer 1988 | `curl -L` |
| NBER chapter pages | Griliches 1961 (`nber.org/chapters/c6492`), Ohta & Griliches 1976 | WebFetch |
| Publisher / agency pages | Statistics Canada 62F0014M2022008; BLS CPI factsheet (used cars and trucks); Manheim methodology PDF (text extracted with `pdftotext`); Cox Automotive days' supply; Canadian Black Book index page and 2026 depreciation report; AutoTrader.ca Price Index June 2024; iSeeCars 2013 study; NeurIPS 2017 proceedings pages (LightGBM, SHAP); CTRF proceedings PDF (Yanes 2010) | WebFetch / `curl` |
| Web search (standard and extended modes) | Industry indices and methodology documents; search for academic work on used-car markdowns / time on lot / "liquidity index"; Canadian and Quebec evidence | WebSearch |

## Queries run (web search)

1. `Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index methodology mix mileage seasonally adjusted`
2. `Canadian Black Book used vehicle retention index Canada methodology`
3. `Statistics Canada consumer price index used vehicles introduced methodology J.D. Power data 2022`
4. `BLS CPI used cars and trucks methodology J.D. Power data factsheet`
5. `used car dealer price reductions time on lot listing data empirical study markdown hazard` (extended)
6. `Cox Automotive days' supply used vehicle vAuto methodology; CarGurus used car price index; iSeeCars used car price study`
7. `CarGurus Used Car Price Index methodology; iSeeCars used car price drops study methodology; AutoTrader.ca price index report used vehicle Canada`
8. `Court 1939 "Hedonic price indexes with automotive examples" The Dynamics of Automobile Demand General Motors pages`
9. `"used car" "liquidity index" OR "liquidity score" market days to turn dealership inventory academic paper` (extended)
10. `Kraft Rao odometer thresholds used car time on lot Texas title data paper` (no usable result; item discarded)
11. `CarGurus "Used Car Price Index" OR "Price Trends" methodology instant market value listings`
12. `iSeeCars study used cars price drops number of price cuts days to sell methodology`
13. `Canada used vehicle market depreciation study economics Quebec "used vehicle" prices dealers research paper OR working paper` (extended)
14. JSTOR/AER record confirmation queries for Bond 1982, Lazear 1986, Genesove & Mayer 1997.

## Crossref / OpenAlex query batches

- Batch 1 (85 candidate DOIs, buckets A–D), Batch 2 (97 candidate DOIs, buckets E–I plus extras), Batch 3 (57 corrected/new DOIs). Bibliographic searches: 31 + 32 + 11 titles. OpenAlex: 12 + 10 titles. Semantic Scholar: 7 + 6 titles.
- Logs kept in the session scratch directory (`/tmp/wp36lit/out*.tsv`, `s*.tsv`, `cache.json`); the final verification string for each entry is in the `verified_via` column of `evidence_matrix.csv`.

## Inclusion criteria

1. Peer-reviewed article, handbook chapter, book, or NBER working paper whose metadata (title, authors, year, venue) were confirmed by Crossref, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, IDEAS/RePEc or the publisher page; or an official statistical-agency / industry methodology document fetched directly.
2. Direct relevance to at least one WP36 topic bucket (hedonic pricing of vehicles; durable-goods / used-car markets; dealer inventory and dynamic pricing; search, dispersion and liquidity; survival analysis; spatial competition and regional integration; identification of strategic interaction and event-study methods; price indices and listing-vs-transaction measurement; multiple testing and model evaluation).
3. Preference for the canonical, most-cited statement of a result (e.g. the published AER version over the NBER version where both exist, except Porter & Sattler 1999 which was never published).
4. Items listed in the brief with uncertain identity ("Jerath/Jim??", "Hyndman?", "Hortaçsu?" car-dealer markdown, "Reis & Silva?", "Dunne & Mian?", "Kraft & Rao") were searched; those that could not be identified or verified were discarded rather than guessed.

## Exclusion / safety

- Known retracted items (Kim–Muhn–Nikolaev 2024; Corbet et al. 2019 IRFA) are not cited and did not surface.
- Candidate DOIs that resolved to unrelated records were replaced only when Crossref bibliographic search returned an exact title/author/venue match; otherwise the item was dropped (e.g. Thomadsen 2005 RAND, confirmed by OpenAlex but with no DOI and no resolvable RePEc handle, was dropped).
- Grey literature (Manheim, Cox, CBB, AutoTrader.ca, CarGurus, iSeeCars) is included only as documentation of existing indices, flagged as non-peer-reviewed in `notes`.

## Output checks

- `references.bib` parsed with a regex count of `@type{key,` blocks; duplicate keys checked; all characters ASCII.
- Every `key` in `evidence_matrix.csv` checked to exist in `references.bib` and vice versa (script in session log; result reported in the final memo to the caller).