Received auction theory prescribes that a reserve price which maximizes expected profit should be no less than the seller's own value for the auctioned object. In contrast, a common empirical observation is that many auctions have reserve prices set below sellers' values, even at zero. This...

We analyze choices of sellers, each setting a reserve price in a laboratory first price auction with automated equilibrium bidding. Subjects are allowed to gain experience for a fixed period of time prior to making a single payoff-relevant choice. Behavior of more experienced sellers was...

This paper discusses the role of secret versus public reserve prices when bidders’ valuations depend positively on the seller’s private signal. A public reserve price is announced before the auction starts, and a secret reserve price is disclosed after the highest bid has been reached. The...

This paper examines some of the flaws in Medicare's pricing system and considers some potential fixes. As currently structured, Medicare's reimbursement system stifles incentives to seek lower prices. Prices are recommended by provider groups and centrally administered. With what amounts to an...

If all potential buyers participate in a first-price auction, then (theoretically) the auction price weakly exceeds the price placed by the seller under a posted-price mechanism. However, it is documented that in the online sellers prefer posted-price mechanism to auction. We aim to explain this...

The dissertation examines the effect of counterparty risk on the price difference between defaulted US bond prices (market-based recovery) and the corresponding final CDS auction prices (auction-based recovery) during the CDS auction day for the period of 2008-2015. The counterparty risk is...

This paper examines the relationships between spectrum auction design and the prices paid for national 3G wireless licenses. Of particular interest is how auction features that can be modified by policy-makers determine prices paid for spectrum. Our theoretical and empirical analysis is based on...

A large fraction of online advertisements are sold via repeated second-price auctions. In these auctions, the reserve price is the main tool for the auctioneer to boost revenues. In this work, we investigate the following question: How can the auctioneer optimize reserve prices by learning from...

This paper aims to estimate the effect of imposing a reserve price in repeated auctions of homogeneous items. I model the behavior of impatient bidders who search for the best auction outcome over time. The model is used to develop estimating equations for the bidders' valuations, and to...

In an auction-style listing at eBay, sellers have the option to set a posted price (also known as buy-it-now price), which allows buyers to instantly purchase an item before the start of the auction. This paper provides a rationale for such a selling mechanism. When many identical items are...