American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
When Should Sellers Use Auctions?
American Economic Review
vol. 103,
no. 5, August 2013
(pp. 1830–61)
Abstract
A bidding process can be organized so that offers are submitted simultaneously or sequentially. In the latter case, potential buyers can condition their behavior on previous entrants' decisions. The relative performance of these mechanisms is investigated when entry is costly and selective, meaning that potential buyers with higher values are more likely to participate. A simple sequential mechanism can give both buyers and sellers significantly higher payoffs than the commonly used simultaneous bid auction. The findings are illustrated with parameters estimated from simultaneous entry USFS timber auctions where our estimates predict that the sequential mechanism would increase revenue and efficiency.Citation
Roberts, James W., and Andrew Sweeting. 2013. "When Should Sellers Use Auctions?" American Economic Review, 103 (5): 1830–61. DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.5.1830Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D44 Auctions
- L73 Forest Products
- Q23 Renewable Resources and Conservation: Forestry