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Auctions Beat Posted Prices in a Small Market

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  • Benoît Julien
  • John Kennes
  • Ian King

Abstract

In a model with two buyers and sellers we consider the choice of sales mechanism from three possibilities: posted prices, and auctions with and without reserve prices. With homogenous goods, sellers´expected revenues are highestwhen both sellers auction with reserve prices 33% higher than if posting prices and 100% higher than if auctioning without reserve prices. When sellers can choose their mechanism before choosing prices, both sellers auction with a reserve price in the dominant strategy equilibrium. With heterogenous goods, the equilibrium with posted prices is inefficient (MONTGOMERY [1991]) but the equilibria with both types of auctions are efficient.

Suggested Citation

  • Benoît Julien & John Kennes & Ian King, 2002. "Auctions Beat Posted Prices in a Small Market," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 158(4), pages 548-562, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(200212)158:4_548:abppia_2.0.tx_2-c
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kenneth Burdett & Shouyong Shi & Randall Wright, 2001. "Pricing and Matching with Frictions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(5), pages 1060-1085, October.
    2. Binmore, Ken & Swierzbinski, Joe & Hsu, Steven & Proulx, Chris, 1993. "Focal Points and Bargaining," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 22(4), pages 381-409.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kircher, Philipp & Kim, Kyungmin, 2013. "Efficient Competition through Cheap Talk: Competing Auctions and Competitive Search without Ex Ante Price," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-107, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    2. Julien, Benoit & Kennes, John & King, Ian, 2006. "The Mortensen rule and efficient coordination unemployment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 149-155, February.
    3. John Kennes, 2006. "Competitive Auctions: Theory and Application," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Structural Models of Wage and Employment Dynamics, pages 145-168, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Hummel, Patrick, 2015. "Simultaneous use of auctions and posted prices," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 269-284.
    5. Randall Wright & Philipp Kircher & Benoit Julîen & Veronica Guerrieri, 2017. "Directed Search: A Guided Tour," NBER Working Papers 23884, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Benoît Julien & John Kennes & Ian King, 2005. "Ex post bidding and efficient coordination unemployment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 174-193, February.
    7. Julien, Benoit & Kennes, John & King, Ian Paul, 2011. "Implementing the Mortensen rule in a frictional labor market," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 80-91, March.
    8. Halko, Marja-Liisa & Kultti, Klaus & Niinimaki, Juha-Pekka, 2007. "Evolutionary stability of trading rules in an urn-ball matching model," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 11-15, March.
    9. Kyungmin Kim & Philipp Kircher, 2013. "Efficient Competition through Cheap Talk: Competing Auctions and Competitive Search without Ex Ante Price Commitment," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 235, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    10. Han Han Peking & Benoit Julien & Liang Wang, 2021. "On the Robustness of Pricing Mechanisms," Working Papers 202105, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    11. Patrick Hummel, 2018. "How do selling mechanisms affect profits, surplus, capacity and prices with unknown demand?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(1), pages 94-126, February.
    12. Christopher Boyer & B. Brorsen & Tong Zhang, 2014. "Common-value auction versus posted-price selling: an agent-based model approach," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 9(1), pages 129-149, April.
    13. John Kennes & Aaron Schiff, 2003. "The Value of a Reputation System," Industrial Organization 0301011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Nejat Anbarci & Pedro Gomis-Porqueras & Marcus Pivato, 2018. "Evolutionary stability of bargaining and price posting: implications for formal and informal activities," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 365-397, April.
    15. Melvyn G. Coles & Jan Eeckhout, 2000. "Heterogeneity as a coordination device," Economics Working Papers 510, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D45 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Rationing; Licensing
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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