Optimal Auction Design in a Common Value Model
35 Pages Posted: 19 Dec 2016
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Optimal Auction Design in a Common Value Model
Optimal Auction Design in a Common Value Model
Date Written: December 16, 2016
Abstract
We study auction design when bidders have a pure common value equal to the maximum of their independent signals. In the revenue maximizing mechanism, each bidder makes a payment that is independent of his signal and the allocation discriminates in favor of bidders with lower signals. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition under which the optimal mechanism reduces to a posted price under which all bidders are equally likely to get the good. This model of pure common values can equivalently be interpreted as model of resale: the bidders have independent private values at the auction stage, and the winner of the auction can make a take-it-or-leave-it-offer in the secondary market under complete information.
Keywords: Optimal auction, common values, revenue maximization, revenue equivalence, rst-price auction, second-price auction, resale, posted price, maximum value game, wallet game, descending auction, local incentive constraints, global incentive constraints
JEL Classification: C72, D44, D82, D83
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation