Auction Theory - Auction Web

Auction theory is an applied branch of game theory which deals with how people act in auction markets and researches the game-theoretic properties of auction markets. There are many possible designs (or sets of rules) for an auction and typical issues studied by auction theorists include the efficiency of a given auction design, optimal and equilibrium bidding strategies, and revenue comparison. Auction theory is also used as a tool to inform the design of real-world auctions; most notably auctions for the privatization of public-sector companies or the sale of licenses for use of the electromagnetic spectrum.

JEL Classification

Journal of Economic Literature: Classification System: C7 stands for Game Theory. D4 - Market structure and Pricing. D44 - Auctions.

Types of auction

There are traditionally four types of auction that are used for the allocation of a single item:

First-price sealed-bid auctions in which bidders place their bid in a sealed envelope and simultaneously hand them to the auctioneer. The envelopes are opened and the individual with the highest bid wins, paying a price equal to the exact amount that he or she bid.
Second-price sealed-bid auctions (Vickrey auctions) in which bidders place their bid in a sealed envelope and simultaneously hand them to the auctioneer. The envelopes are opened and the individual with the highest bid wins, paying a price equal to the exact amount of the second highest bid.
Open Ascending-bid auctions (English auctions) in which the price is steadily raised by the auctioneer with bidders dropping out once the price becomes too high. This continues until there remains only one bidder who wins the auction at the current price.
Open Descending-bid auctions (Dutch auctions) in which the price starts at a level sufficiently high to deter all bidders and is progressively lowered until a bidder indicates that he is prepared to buy at the current price. He or she wins the auction and pays the price at which they bid.

Most auction theory revolves around these four "standard" auction types. However, other auction types have also received some academic study, such as:

All pay auctions in which bidders place their bid in a sealed envelope and simultaneously hand them to the auctioneer. The envelopes are opened and the individual with the highest bid wins, paying a price equal to the exact amount that he or she bid. All losing bidders are also required to make a payment to the auctioneer equal to their own bid in an all-pay auction. This auction format is non-standard, but can be used to understand things such as election campaigns (in which bids can be interpreted as campaign spending) or queuing for a scarce commodity (in which your bid is the amount of time for which you are prepared to queue).
Unique bid auctions.
Many homogenous item auctions, e.g., spectrum auctions.
Simultaneous multiple-round auctions.

Game-theoretic models

A game-theoretic auction model is a mathematical game represented by a set of players, a set of actions (strategies) available to each player, and a payoff vector corresponding to each combination of strategies. Generally, the players are the buyer(s) and the seller(s). The action set of each player is a set of bid functions or reservation prices. Each bid function maps the player's value (in the case of a buyer) or cost (in the case of a seller) to a bid price. The payoff of each player under a combination of strategies is the expected utility (or expected profit) of that player under that combination of strategies.

Game-theoretic models of auctions and strategic bidding generally fall into either of the following two categories. In a private value model, each participant (bidder) assumes that each of the competing bidders obtains a random private value from a probability distribution. In a common value model, each participant assumes that any other participant obtains a random signal from a probability distribution common to all bidders. Usually, but not always, a private values model assumes that the values are independent across bidders, whereas a common value model usually assumes that the values are independent up to the common parameters of the probability distribution.

When it is necessary to make explicit assumptions about bidders' value distributions, most of the published research assumes symmetric bidders. This means that the probability distribution from which the bidders obtain their values (or signals) are identical across bidders. In a private values model which assumes independence, symmetry implies that the bidders' values are independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.).

An important example (which does not assume independence) is Milgrom and Weber's "general symmetric model" (1982). One of the earlier published theoretical research addressing properties of auctions among asymmetric bidders is Keith Waehrer's 1999 article. Later published research include Susan Athey's 2001 Econometrica article, as well as Reny and Zamir (2004).

Revenue equivalence

One of the major findings of Auction Theory is the celebrated Revenue Equivalence Theorem, which states that any allocation mechanism/auction in which (i) the bidder with the highest type/signal/value always wins, (ii) the bidder with the lowest possible type/value/signal expects zero surplus, (iii) where all bidders are risk neutral and (iv) drawn from a strictly increasing and atom less distribution will lead to the same revenue for the seller (and player i of type v can expect the same surplus across auction types).

Winner's curse

The common value model explains the winner's curse phenomenon encountered in auctions. Although the statistical theory that underlies this result is simple, it has a powerful prediction that applies to many auctions in the real world.