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Estimating risk aversion from ascending and sealed-bid auctions: the case of timber auction data

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  • Jingfeng Lu

    (Department of Economics, National University of Singapore)

  • Isabelle Perrigne

    (Department of Economics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA)

Abstract

Estimating bidders' risk aversion in auctions is a challenging problem because of identification issues. This paper takes advantage of bidding data from two auction designs to identify nonparametrically the bidders' utility function within a private value framework. In particular, ascending auction data allow one to recover the latent distribution of private values, while first-price sealed-bid auction data allow one to recover the bidders' utility function. This leads to a nonparametric estimator. An application to the US Forest Service timber auctions is proposed. Estimated utility functions display concavity, which can be partly captured by constant relative risk aversion. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingfeng Lu & Isabelle Perrigne, 2008. "Estimating risk aversion from ascending and sealed-bid auctions: the case of timber auction data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(7), pages 871-896.
    • Handle: RePEc:jae:japmet:v:23:y:2008:i:7:p:871-896
    DOI: 10.1002/jae.1032
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

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