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Cheating in Second Price Auctions and Emotional Responses

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  • Sharma, Shashidharan

Abstract

This paper aims to address a gap in literature at the intersection of cheating in auctions and emotional responses. In a second price auction with a cheating seller, we model the bidder's dislike for the possibility of cheating by drawing upon the idea of reference point-based utility. A symmetric increasing equilibrium strategy is characterised and comparative statics are analysed. A comparison of expected payoffs to honest and dishonest sellers is made. We find that if reference points are low enough then the cheating seller's payoff is lower than what a seller earns in a regular first-price auction. Our results show that even with bidders disliking cheating, honest sellers lose out due to bidders shading their bids to accommodate for the possibility of being cheated.

Suggested Citation

  • Sharma, Shashidharan, 2022. "Cheating in Second Price Auctions and Emotional Responses," MPRA Paper 121492, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:121492
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/121492/1/MPRA_paper_121492.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephanie Rosenkranz & Patrick W. Schmitz, 2007. "Reserve Prices in Auctions as Reference Points," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(520), pages 637-653, April.
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    5. Shunda, Nicholas, 2009. "Auctions with a buy price: The case of reference-dependent preferences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 645-664, November.
    6. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Takahiro Watanabe & Takehiko Yamato, 2008. "A choice of auction format in seller cheating: a signaling game analysis," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 36(1), pages 57-80, July.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Second Price Auctions; Reference Dependence; Emotional Responses;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D89 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Other

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