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On organizing a sequential auction: results from a natural experiment by Christie's

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  • Victor Ginsburgh
  • Jan C. van Ours

Abstract

In empirical studies of sequential auctions of identical objects prices have been found to decline. We study three ascending price auctions of ancient Chinese porcelain recovered from shipwrecks, in which there are very long sequences of lots containing the same number of identical objects. In the three auctions different setups were used. We exploit these 'natural experiments' to examine whether some sequences generate more revenue than others. Our results point to the fact that a sequence of lots each of which contains the same numbers of items generates more revenue than lots with varying numbers of items. We also find that over a sequence of lots hammer prices decline and converge to some limit value, which is larger than the pre-sale estimate in the first two sales, and is equal to the pre-sale estimate in the third one. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

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  • Victor Ginsburgh & Jan C. van Ours, 2007. "On organizing a sequential auction: results from a natural experiment by Christie's," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 59(1), pages 1-15, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:59:y:2007:i:1:p:1-15
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpl032
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    Cited by:

    1. David Pardoe & Peter Stone & Maytal Saar-Tsechansky & Tayfun Keskin & Kerem Tomak, 2010. "Adaptive Auction Mechanism Design and the Incorporation of Prior Knowledge," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 353-370, August.
    2. Dakshina Garfield De Silva & Marina Gertsberg & Georgia Kosmopoulou & Rachel Pownall, 2017. "Dealer Networks in the World of Art," Working Papers 198144199, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    3. Boudreau, James W. & Shunda, Nicholas, 2016. "Sequential auctions with budget constraints: Evidence from fantasy basketball auction drafts," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 8-22.
    4. De Silva, Dakshina G. & Gertsberg, Marina & Kosmopoulou, Georgia & Pownall, Rachel A.J., 2022. "Evolution of a dealer trading network and its effects on art auction prices," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    5. Paulo B. Goes & Gilbert G. Karuga & Arvind K. Tripathi, 2010. "Understanding Willingness-to-Pay Formation of Repeat Bidders in Sequential Online Auctions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 907-924, December.
    6. Sofia Izquierdo Sanchez & Maria Navarro Paniagua, 2017. "Hollywood’s Wage Structure and Discrimination," Working Papers 152465718, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    7. Yunhan Li & J. Scott Shonkwiler, 2021. "Assessing the Role of Ordering in Sequential English Auctions – Evidence from the Online Western Video Market Auction," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(1), pages 90-105, January.
    8. Vishnu V. Narayan & Enguerrand Prebet & Adrian Vetta, 2019. "The Declining Price Anomaly is not Universal in Multi-Buyer Sequential Auctions (but almost is)," Papers 1905.00853, arXiv.org.

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