Collusive agreements are often observed in procurement auctions. They are probablymore easily achieved when competitors’ costs are easily estimated. If, however, the individualcosts of bidders are private information, effective ring formation is difficult to realize.We compare experimentally...

A vast literature shows that individuals frequently violate normative principles in reasoning. In evaluatingthe relevance of these findings for psychology, economics, and related disciplines, it is natural to askwhether reasoning errors reflect random aberrations or systematic biases. One...

The price mecanism is the primary means of information transferin decentralized economic systems. High prices indicate highdemand, whereas low prices indicate low demand. Thus prices arethe signals for accelerating or slowing production. However, usingsequential, multi-unit auctions, we show...

The results of an asset market experiment, in which 64 subjects trade two assets oneight markets in a computerized continuous double auction, indicate that objectivelyirrelevant information influences trading behavior. Moreover, positively and negativelyframed information leads to a particular...

This paper provides an overview on the simulations andexperiments we have done in order to better understandhuman-agent interaction in a market environment. We findthat the introduction of software agents does not necessarilyinduce a more efficient market. More surprisingly,information on the...

A vast literature shows that individuals frequently fail to identify the normative solutionsin logical reasoning tasks. Much attention has been devoted to the study ofthese deviations at the individual level; less effort was exerted to investigate whetherinstitutional settings might facilitate...

A great deal of late bidding has been observed on internet auctions such as ebay, which employ a second price auction with a fixed deadline. Much less late bidding has been observed on internet auctions such as those run by Amazon, which employ similar auction rules, but use an ending rule that...

Spieltheoretische Überlegungen zeigen, dass Reputationsmechanismen, wie sie auf Internet-Marktplattformen zur Anwendung kommen, prinzipiell geignet sind, Handel in großen anonymen Märkten zu erleichtern. Dies geil selbst dann, wenn die Marktteilnehmer ihre Identität jederzeit und kostenlos...

This paper studies how software agents influence the market behavior ofhuman traders. Programmed traders with a passive arbitrage seekingstrategy are introduced in a double auction market experiment with humansubjects in the laboratory. As a treatment variable, the influence ofinformation on the...

Are commonly known beliefs essential for bidding behavior in asymmetric auctions? Our experimental results suggest that not informing participants how values are randomly generated does not change behavior much and may even make it appear more rational.