In models of asymmetric information, possession of private information leads to rents for the possessors. This induces mechanism designers to distort away from efficiency. The authors show that this is an artifact of the presumption that information is independently distributed. Rent extraction...

A dynamic model with many sellers and buyers is constructed. Agents failing to trade may trade in the next period. An equilibrium is found where sellers hold identical auctions and buyers randomize over the sellers they visit. The distribution of buyer valuations is endogenous. An auction with...