IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/quante/v14y2023i2p419-470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Risk aversion in share auctions: Estimating import rents from TRQs in Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Häfner

Abstract

This paper analyzes risk aversion in discriminatory share auctions. I generalize the k‐step share auction model of Kastl (2011, 2012) and establish that marginal profits are set‐identified for any given coefficient of constant absolute risk aversion. I also derive necessary conditions for best‐response behavior, which allows determining risk preferences from bidding data. Further, I show how the bidders' optimality conditions allow computing bounds on the marginal profits that are tighter than those currently available. I use my results to estimate import rents from Swiss tariff‐rate quotas on high‐quality beef. Rents are overestimated when ignoring risk aversion, and rent extraction is underestimated. Small bidders (small, privately owned butcheries) are more risk averse than large bidders (general retailers). Best response violations are few and uniform across bidder sizes.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Häfner, 2023. "Risk aversion in share auctions: Estimating import rents from TRQs in Switzerland," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(2), pages 419-470, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:quante:v:14:y:2023:i:2:p:419-470
    DOI: 10.3982/QE1907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3982/QE1907
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3982/QE1907?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hefti, Andreas & Shen, Peiyao, 2019. "Supply function competition with asymmetric costs: Theory and experiment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 24-27.
    2. Ali Hortaçsu & Jakub Kastl & Allen Zhang, 2018. "Bid Shading and Bidder Surplus in the US Treasury Auction System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(1), pages 147-169, January.
    3. Helmut Elsinger & Philipp Schmidt-Dengler & Christine Zulehner, 2019. "Competition in Treasury Auctions," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 157-184, February.
    4. Frank Wolak, 2000. "An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Hedge Contracts on Bidding Behavior in a Competitive Electricity Market," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 1-39.
    5. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    6. Levon Barseghyan & Francesca Molinari & Ted O'Donoghue & Joshua C. Teitelbaum, 2018. "Estimating Risk Preferences in the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(2), pages 501-564, June.
    7. Edward J. Anderson & Pär Holmberg & Andrew B. Philpott, 2013. "Mixed strategies in discriminatory divisible-good auctions," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 44(1), pages 1-32, March.
    8. Tong Li & Jingfeng Lu & Li Zhao, 2015. "Auctions with selective entry and risk averse bidders: theory and evidence," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(3), pages 524-545, September.
    9. Kastl, Jakub, 2020. "Auctions in financial markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Philip J. Reny, 1999. "On the Existence of Pure and Mixed Strategy Nash Equilibria in Discontinuous Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(5), pages 1029-1056, September.
    11. Ali Hortaçsu & Fernando Luco & Steven L. Puller & Dongni Zhu, 2019. "Does Strategic Ability Affect Efficiency? Evidence from Electricity Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(12), pages 4302-4342, December.
    12. Philip J. Reny & Shmuel Zamir, 2004. "On the Existence of Pure Strategy Monotone Equilibria in Asymmetric First-Price Auctions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(4), pages 1105-1125, July.
    13. James T. E. Chapman & David McAdams & Harry J. Paarsch, 2007. "Bounding Revenue Comparisons across Multi-Unit Auction Formats under ε-Best Response," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 455-458, May.
    14. Back, Kerry & Zender, Jaime F., 2001. "Auctions of divisible goods with endogenous supply," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 29-34, October.
    15. Marszalec, Daniel, 2017. "The impact of auction choice on revenue in treasury bill auctions – An empirical evaluation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 215-239.
    16. 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.
    17. Paul R. Milgrom & Robert J. Weber, 1985. "Distributional Strategies for Games with Incomplete Information," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 619-632, November.
    18. Jakub Kastl, 2011. "Discrete Bids and Empirical Inference in Divisible Good Auctions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 78(3), pages 974-1014.
    19. David McAdams, 2003. "Isotone Equilibrium in Games of Incomplete Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1191-1214, July.
    20. Ali Hortaçsu & David McAdams, 2010. "Mechanism Choice and Strategic Bidding in Divisible Good Auctions: An Empirical Analysis of the Turkish Treasury Auction Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(5), pages 833-865.
    21. Yunmi Kong, 2020. "Not knowing the competition: evidence and implications for auction design," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(3), pages 840-867, September.
    22. Kjell G. Nyborg & Kristian Rydqvist & Suresh M. Sundaresan, 2002. "Bidder Behavior in Multiunit Auctions: Evidence from Swedish Treasury Auctions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(2), pages 394-424, April.
    23. Orly Sade & Charles Schnitzlein & Jaime Zender, 2006. "When Less (Potential Demand) Is More (Revenue): Asymmetric Bidding Capacities in Divisible Good Auctions," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 10(3), pages 389-416, September.
    24. Gaurab Aryal & Hanna Charankevich & Seungwon Jeong & Dong-Hyuk Kim, 2021. "Procurements with Bidder Asymmetry in Cost and Risk-Aversion," Papers 2111.04626, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    25. Kastl, Jakub, 2012. "On the properties of equilibria in private value divisible good auctions with constrained bidding," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 339-352.
    26. Back, Kerry & Zender, Jaime F, 1993. "Auctions of Divisible Goods: On the Rationale for the Treasury Experiment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(4), pages 733-764.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pycia, Marek & Woodward, Kyle, 2021. "Auctions of Homogeneous Goods: A Case for Pay-as-Bid," CEPR Discussion Papers 15656, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Kastl, Jakub, 2012. "On the properties of equilibria in private value divisible good auctions with constrained bidding," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 339-352.
    3. Manzano, Carolina & Vives, Xavier, 2021. "Market power and welfare in asymmetric divisible good auctions," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 16(3), July.
    4. Jason Allen & Jakub Kastl & Milena Wittwer, 2020. "Maturity Composition and the Demand for Government Debt," Staff Working Papers 20-29, Bank of Canada.
    5. Anderson, Edward & Holmberg, Pär, 2018. "Price instability in multi-unit auctions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 318-341.
    6. Burkett, Justin & Woodward, Kyle, 2020. "Uniform price auctions with a last accepted bid pricing rule," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    7. Peyman Khezr & Anne Cumpston, 2022. "A review of multiunit auctions with homogeneous goods," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1225-1247, September.
    8. Holmberg, Pär & Newbery, David & Ralph, Daniel, 2013. "Supply function equilibria: Step functions and continuous representations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(4), pages 1509-1551.
    9. Pär Holmberg, 2017. "Pro‐competitive Rationing in Multi‐unit Auctions," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 372-395, October.
    10. Song, Zhaogang & Zhu, Haoxiang, 2018. "Quantitative easing auctions of Treasury bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 103-124.
    11. Mar Reguant, 2014. "Complementary Bidding Mechanisms and Startup Costs in Electricity Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(4), pages 1708-1742.
    12. Shiying Chen & Zhenhuan Dong & Chunming Cao & Changjun Zheng, 2022. "Strategy and design of multi‐unit auction in grouped asymmetric setting," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3435-3453, December.
    13. Monostori, Zoltán, 2013. "Diszkriminatív áras és egyenáras aukciók [Discriminatory and uniform-price auctions]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1048-1074.
    14. repec:vuw:vuwscr:19224 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Edward Anderson & Pär Holmberg, 2023. "Multi-unit auctions with uncertain supply and single-unit demand," Working Papers EPRG2310, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    16. Kasberger, Bernhard & Woodward, Kyle, 2021. "Bidding in Multi-Unit Auctions under Limited Information," MPRA Paper 111185, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Gentry, Matthew & Li, Tong & Lu, Jingfeng, 2015. "Existence of monotone equilibrium in first price auctions with private risk aversion and private initial wealth," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 214-221.
    18. Hickman Brent R. & Hubbard Timothy P. & Sağlam Yiğit, 2012. "Structural Econometric Methods in Auctions: A Guide to the Literature," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 67-106, August.
    19. Wittwer, Milena, 2020. "Interconnected pay-as-bid auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 506-530.
    20. Häfner, Samuel, 2015. "Value Bounds and Best Response Violations in Discriminatory Share Auctions," Working papers 2015/14, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    21. Alexander Teytelboym & Shengwu Li & Scott Duke Kominers & Mohammad Akbarpour & Piotr Dworczak, 2021. "Discovering Auctions: Contributions of Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(3), pages 709-750, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:quante:v:14:y:2023:i:2:p:419-470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.