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Revenue effects of ambiguity in multi-unit auctions

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  • Bougt, Daniel
  • Ghosh, Gagan
  • Liu, Heng

Abstract

We study the effect of ambiguity on expected revenue in multi-unit auctions where bidders have independent private values, maxmin preferences, and single-unit demand. If the set of priors is suitably rich, we show that the discriminatory or ‘pay-as-bid’ auction has the highest expected revenue, followed by the sequential first-price auction and then the sequential second-price auction. The uniform price auction with the ‘highest losing bid’ pricing rule does the worst. Our results also extend to some open auction formats.

Suggested Citation

  • Bougt, Daniel & Ghosh, Gagan & Liu, Heng, 2025. "Revenue effects of ambiguity in multi-unit auctions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:225:y:2025:i:c:s0022053125000420
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2025.105996
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    References listed on IDEAS

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