It is commonly assumed in private value auctions that bidders have no information about the realization of the other bidders' valuations. Nevertheless, an informative public signal about the realization may be released by a bidder while he learns his own valuation. Using a simple discrete...

We develop tests for common values at first-price sealed-bid auctions. Our tests are nonparametric, require observation only of the bids submitted at each auction, and are based on the fact that the winner’s curse arises only in common values auctions. The tests build on recently developed...

We study all-pay auctions with budget-constrained bidders who have access to fair insurance before bidding simultaneously over a prize. We characterize a unique equilibrium for the special cases of two bidders and one prize, show existence and a heuristic for finding an equilibrium in the case...

A distinguishing feature of the ECB's monetary policy setup is the preannouncement of a minimum bid rate in its weekly repo auctions. However, whenever interest rates are expected to decline, the minimum bid rate is viewed as too high and banks refrain from bidding, severely impeding the ECB's...

This paper analyzes the individual bidding behaviour of German banks in the money market auctions conducted by the ECB from the beginning of the third quarter of 2000 to the end of the first quarter of 2001. Our approach takes a variety of characteristics of the individual banks into account. In...

As a rule, economic models assume that economic agents are rational and maximise their utility. Experimental economic research in particular attempts to verify this assumption under artificial conditions using laboratory tests. Experiment results must be carefully interpreted, as laboratory...

Volkswirtschaftliche Modelle unterstellen im Regelfall rationale, nutzenmaximierende Wirtschaftssubjekte. Insbesondere die experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung versucht mit Hilfe von Laborexperimenten – also unter künstlichen Bedingungen -, diese Verhaltensannahme zu verifizieren bzw. zu...

Ideally a new reform of the EU trade regime for bananas (COMB) should be equipped in a way that it makes a long-term contribution to the realisation of sustainable goals, or at least does not prevent them. From a point of view of sustainable development, a trade restriction measure has to...