Allotment In First-Price Auctions: An Experimental Investigation.

We experimentally study the effects of allotment Ð the division of an item into several units Ð in independent private value auctions. In particular, we compare a single-item, first-price auction with two equivalent treatments with allotment: a two-unit discriminatory auction and a setting in which subjects participate in two identical and simultaneous first- price auctions, each involving a single unit. We find that allotment mitigates overbidding, with this effect being more pronounced in the discriminatory auction. In the allotment treatments, most bidders submit different bids for identical units (bid spreading). Across treatments, the discriminatory auction is the least efficient.