This work studies a reverse auction in which a buyer needs to acquire a given good or service from suppliers having different costs. The sellers are characterized by qualities that are the buyer’s private information. Comparing the outcomes of different policies regarding the revelation of...

We investigate equilibrium bidding in first-price auctions with asymmetric reserve prices. For example, the auctioneer may set a low reserve price for one subset of bidders and a high reserve price for others. When used to pursue a distributional objective, lowering the reserve price for some...