The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of supply uncertainty on the formation of prices and on the seller's expected revenue in sequential first- and second-price sealed bid auctions.

This paper is a comparative study of the responses to the 1995 Wharton School survey of derivative usage among US non-financial firms and a 1997 companion survey on German non-financial firms. It is not a mere comparison of the results of both studies but a comparative study, drawing a...