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Near-optimality of second price mechanisms in a class of asymmetric auctions

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  • Mares, Vlad
  • Swinkels, Jeroen M.

Abstract

Consider a setting with n sellers having i.i.d. costs with log-concave density f from cumulative F, and a buyer who puts a premium [Delta]i on procuring from seller i. We show how for any given [Delta]1,...,[Delta]n, a simple second price bonus auction can be chosen which comes surprisingly close to giving the auctioneer the same surplus as an optimal mechanism. The bonuses depend only on the magnitude and monotonicity of the slope of virtual costs given F. We show that these in turn depend only on fairly coarse information about F. We explore how this result generalizes to asymmetrically distributed costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Mares, Vlad & Swinkels, Jeroen M., 2011. "Near-optimality of second price mechanisms in a class of asymmetric auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 218-241, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:72:y:2011:i:1:p:218-241
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Schweizer, Nikolaus & Szech, Nora, 2015. "A quantitative version of Myerson regularity," Working Paper Series in Economics 76, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    2. Bartling, Björn & Netzer, Nick, 2016. "An externality-robust auction: Theory and experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 186-204.
    3. Kirkegaard, René, 2014. "Ranking asymmetric auctions: Filling the gap between a distributional shift and stretch," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 60-69.
    4. Rahul Deb & Mallesh Pai, 2013. "Symmetric Auctions," Working Papers tecipa-486, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    5. Vlad Mares & Jeroen Swinkels, 2014. "Comparing first and second price auctions with asymmetric bidders," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(3), pages 487-514, August.
    6. Mares, Vlad & Swinkels, Jeroen M., 2014. "On the analysis of asymmetric first price auctions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1-40.
    7. Tamás L. Balogh & Christian Ewerhart, 2015. "On the origin of r-concavity and related concepts," ECON - Working Papers 187, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    8. Schweizer, Nikolaus & Szech, Nora, 2015. "The quantitative view of Myerson regularity," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Economics of Change SP II 2015-307, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

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