This paper characterizes the optimal first-price auction (FPA) and second-price auction (SPA) for selling rights, contracts, or licenses that involve ensuing payoff uncertainty for the winning bidder. The distribution of the random payoff is common knowledge, except that bidders have private...

This paper proposes a two-stage sealed-bid model for the execution of blind portfolios. An asset manager auctions a package of securities to a set of brokers who are unaware of the specific details about individual securities. We prove that our mechanism reduces the costs of execution for the...

This article examines the effects of market structure on the variety of research projects undertaken and the amount of duplication of research. A characterization of the equilibrium market portfolio of R&D projects and the socially optimal portfolio is provided. It is shown that a merger...