We characterize revenue maximizing mechanisms in a common value environment where the value of the object is equal to the highest of bidders' independent signals. The optimal mechanism exhibits either neutral selection, wherein the object is randomly allocated at a price that all bidders are...

We illustrate the corrosive effect of even small amounts of adverse selection in an asset market and how it can lead to the total breakdown of trade. The problem is the failure of 'market confidence' defined as approximate common knowledge of an upper bound on expected losses. Small probability...

We propose an incomplete information analogue of rationalizability. An action is said to be belief-free rationalizable if it survives the following iterated deletion process. At each stage, we delete actions for a type of a player that are not a best response to some conjecture that puts weight...

Players choose a stochastic choice rule, assigning a probability of “investing” as a function of a state. Players receive a return to investment that is increasing in the proportion of others who invest and the state. In addition, they incur a small cost associated with adapting the...