We analyze the role resale creates for zero-value bidders, called speculators, in standard auctions with symmetric independent private values buyers. English/second-price auctions always have equilibria with active resale markets and positive profits for a speculator. In first- price/Dutch...

This paper contributes to the literature on second-price auctions with resale. We add speculators---bidders with value zero---to the standard symmetric independent private values environment. There always exists a continuum of inefficient equilibria that are profitable for a speculator. With no...

Applying auction theory to the toxic-asset rescue plan currently released by the United States Treasury Department, this paper demonstrates an equilibrium where moderately poor bidders outbid rich bidders in such auctions. After defeating their rich rivals and acquiring the toxic assets, such...

The core is reformulated to incorporate the externality typical in strategic form games.  Any coalition of players may deviate by trying to commit to a profile of actions different from a status quo.  The outsiders of the coalition may take a coordinated measure, incentive-feasibly for...

 A social planner wishes to launch a project but the contenders capable of running the project are cash-constrained and may default.  To signal their capabilities, the contenders may finance their bids through debt or equity, depending on the mechanism chosen by the social planner.  When...

In production economies, the extent to which non-equilibria are blocked depends on specific rules that allocate authority among shareholders, because a blocking coalition's resources are affected by the firms it jointly owns with outsiders. Based on a notion of stochastic blocking, we extend...

We characterize optimal selling mechanisms in auction environments where bidders must incur a cost to learn their valuations. These mechanisms specify for each period, as a function of the bids in previous periods, which new potential buyers should be asked to bid. In addition, these mechanisms...