When selling goods like wireless spectrum or electricity contracts, auction designers often opt for core-selecting mechanisms -- i.e., auctions that induce outcomes in the core -- in order to balance revenue and efficiency goals. But increasingly, auctions -- such as the FCC's 2016-17 Incentive...

We consider mechanisms for allocating a common-value prize between two players in an incomplete information setting. In this setting, each player receives an independent private signal about the prize value. The signals are from a discrete distribution and the value is increasing in both...

The received characterizations of feasible interim allocations are mostly in the spirit of Border (1991): Fix a family of sets, each containing some player-types, and test the interim allocation under consideration against all these sets. In the published literature, such Border-like...

We consider a model of oligopolistic firms that have private information about their cost structure. Prior to competing in the market a competitive advantage, i.e., a cost reducing technology, is allocated to a subset of the firms by means of a multi-object auction. After the auction either all...

We consider innovation contests for the procurement of an innovation under moral hazard and adverse selection. Innovators have private information about their abilities, and choose unobservable effort in order to produce innovations of random quality. Innovation quality is not contractible. We...

In this note, we experimentally examine the relative performance of price-only auctions and multi-attribute auctions. We do so in procurement settings where the buyer can give the winning bidder incentives to exert effort on non-price dimensions after the auction. Both auctions theoretically...

This paper presents the results of experiments carried out in two countries, Bulgaria and Germany, with different allocation rules (first- vs. second-price - auction vs. fair division game). The data analysis of the sealed-bid, private value-contests compares the bid functions, some features of...

This paper presents the results of experiments carried out in two countries, Bulgaria and Germany, with different allocation rules (first- vs. second-price - auction vs. fair division game). The data analysis of the sealed-bid, private value-contests compares the bid functions, some features of...

Full-surplus-extraction auctions designed by Crémer and McLean (1988) have been criticized as unrealistic mechanisms. We assess the performance of these auctions in a controlled experimental environment. The experiment has two treatments: first-price and second-price auctions supplemented with...

The theoretical literature on collusion in auctions suggests that the first-price mechanism can deter the formation of bidding rings. In equilibrium, collusive negotiations are either successful or are avoided altogether, hence such analysis neglects the effects of failed collusion attempts. In...