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Buy or wait, that is the option : the buyer's option in sequential laboratory auctions

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Author Info
Février Philippe
Linnemer Laurent
Visser Michael ()

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Abstract

This paper reports the results from an experiment on two-unit sequential auctions with and without a buyer’s option (which gives the winner of the first auction the right to buy the second unit at the winning price). The demand for the two items is either decreasing, flat, or increasing. The 4 main auction institutions (first-price, Dutch, second-price, English) are studied. We find that observed bidding behavior is close to Nash equilibrium bidding in the auctions for the second unit, but there are substantial deviations in the auctions for the first unit. Despite these deviations, the buyer’s option is correctly used in most cases. The revenue-ranking of the 4 auction institutions is the same as in single-unit experiments. Finally, successive prices are declining when the buyer’s option is available. The last 2 results are used to compare real-life auctions and to discuss the findings in related field-data studies.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquee, INRA in its series Research Unit Working Papers with number 0410.

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Length: 34 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:lea:leawpi:0410

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Related research
Keywords: experimental economics; sequential auctions; buyer's option;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - Auctions

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Black, Jane & De Meza, David, 1992. "Systematic Price Differences between Successive Auctions Are No Anomaly," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 1(4), pages 607-28, Winter.
  2. Kagel, John H. & Levin, Dan, 2005. "Multi-unit demand auctions with synergies: behavior in sealed-bid versus ascending-bid uniform-price auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 170-207, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Gerard J. van den Berg & Jan C. van Ours & Menno P. Pradhan, 2001. "The Declining Price Anomaly in Dutch Dutch Rose Auctions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1055-1062, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Nagel, Rosemarie, 1995. "Unraveling in Guessing Games: An Experimental Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1313-26, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Kagel, John H & Levin, Dan, 2001. "Behavior in Multi-unit Demand Auctions: Experiments with Uniform Price and Dynamic Vickrey Auctions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 413-54, March.
  6. Branco, Fernando, 1997. "Sequential auctions with synergies: An example," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 159-163, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Burns, Penny, 1985. "Market structure and buyer behaviour : Price adjustment in a multi-object progressive oral auction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 275-300, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Robert J. Weber, 1981. "Multiple-Object Auctions," Discussion Papers 496, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science. [Downloadable!]
  9. Claude Montmarquette & Jacques Robert, 1999. "Sequential Auctions with Multi-Unit Demand: Theory, Experiments and Simulations," CIRANO Working Papers 99s-46, CIRANO. [Downloadable!]
  10. Philippe Février & William Roos & Michael Visser, 2005. "The Buyer's Option in Multi-Unit Ascending Auctions: The Case of Wine Auctions at Drouot," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 14(4), pages 813-847, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Kagel, John H & Harstad, Ronald M & Levin, Dan, 1987. "Information Impact and Allocation Rules in Auctions with Affiliated Private Values: A Laboratory Study," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(6), pages 1275-1304, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Ashenfelter, Orley, 1989. "How Auctions Work for Wine and Art," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 23-36, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Victor A. Ginsburgh, 1998. "Absentee Bidders and the Declining Price Anomaly in Wine Auctions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1302-1331, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Kagel, John H & Levin, Dan, 1993. "Independent Private Value Auctions: Bidder Behaviour in First-, Second- and Third-Price Auctions with Varying Numbers of Bidders," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(419), pages 868-79, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Février Philippe & Roos William & Visser Michael, 2004. "The buyer's option in multi-unit ascending auctions : the case of wine auctions at Drouot," Research Unit Working Papers 0409, Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquee, INRA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Leufkens, Kasper & Peeters, Ronald & Vorsatz, Marc, 2006. "Sequential auctions with synergies: An experimental analysis," Research Memoranda 040, Maastricht : METEOR, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization. [Downloadable!]
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