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Buy-Out Prices in Online Auctions: Multi-Unit Demand

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  • Kirkegaard, René
  • Overgaard, Per Baltzer

    (Department of Economics, University of Aarhus, Denmark)

Abstract

On many online auction sites it is now possible for a seller to augment his auction with a maximum or buy-out price. The use of this instrument has been justified in "one-shot" auctions by appeal to impatience or risk aversion. Here we offer additional justification by observing that trading on Internet auctions is not of a "one-shot" nature, but that market participants expect more transactions in the future. This has important implications when bidders desire multiple objects. Specifically, it is shown that an early seller has an incentive to introduce a buy-out price, if similar products are offered later on by other sellers. The buy- ut price will increase revenue in the current auction, but revenue in future auctions will decrease, as will the sum of revenues. In contrast, if a single seller owns multiple units, overall revenue will increase, if buyers anticipate the use of buy-out prices in the future by this seller. In both cases, an optimally chosen buy-out price introduces potential inefficiencies in the allocation.

Suggested Citation

  • Kirkegaard, René & Overgaard, Per Baltzer, "undated". "Buy-Out Prices in Online Auctions: Multi-Unit Demand," Economics Working Papers 2003-4, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    • Handle: RePEc:aah:aarhec:2003-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Timothy Mathews, 2006. "Bidder Welfare In An Auction With A Buyout Option," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(04), pages 595-612.
    2. Stanley Reynolds & John Wooders, 2009. "Auctions with a buy price," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 38(1), pages 9-39, January.
    3. René Kirkegaard & Per Baltzer Overgaard, 2008. "Buy‐out prices in auctions: seller competition and multi‐unit demands," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(3), pages 770-789, September.
    4. Jérémie Gallien & Shobhit Gupta, 2007. "Temporary and Permanent Buyout Prices in Online Auctions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(5), pages 814-833, May.
    5. Hai Yu & Chuangyin Dang & Shou-Yang Wang, 2006. "Game Theoretical Analysis Of Buy-It-Now Price Auctions," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 557-581.
    6. Olarte, Rafael & Haghani, Ali, 2018. "Introducing and testing a game-theoretic model for a lottery-based metering system in Minneapolis, United States," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 63-78.
    7. Axel Ockenfels & David Reiley & Abdolkarim Sadrieh, 2006. "Online Auctions," NBER Working Papers 12785, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sequential Auctions; Multi-Unit Demand; Buy-Out Prices;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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