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Sophisticated Bidders in Beauty-Contest Auctions

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  • Stefano Galavotti
  • Luigi Moretti
  • Paola Valbonesi

Abstract

We study bidding behavior by firms in beauty-contest auctions, i.e., auctions in which the winning bid is the one which gets closest to some function (average) of all submitted bids. Using a dataset on public procurement beauty-contest auctions, we show that firms' observed bidding behavior departs from equilibrium and can be predicted by a "sophistication" index, which captures the firms' capacity of bidding close to optimality in the past. We show that our empirical evidence is consistent with a Cognitive Hierarchy model of bidders' behavior. We also investigate whether and how firms learn to bid strategically through experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Galavotti & Luigi Moretti & Paola Valbonesi, 2018. "Sophisticated Bidders in Beauty-Contest Auctions," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:1-26
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/mic.20150240
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Itzhak Rasooly, 2021. "Going... going... wrong: a test of the level-k (and cognitive hierarchy) models of bidding behaviour," Papers 2111.05686, arXiv.org.
    2. Yao, Ying & Tanaka, Makoto, 2020. "Price-quality trade-off in procurement auctions with an uncertain quality threshold," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 56-70.
    3. Olga Chiappinelli, 2020. "Decentralization And Public Procurement Performance: New Evidence From Italy," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(2), pages 856-880, April.
    4. Xiaohu Qian & Shu-Cherng Fang & Min Huang & Tiantian Nie & Xingwei Wang, 2019. "Bidding Decisions with Nonequilibrium Strategic Thinking in Reverse Auctions," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 757-786, August.
    5. Itzhak Rasooly, 2022. "Going...going...wrong: a test of the level-k (and cognitive hierarchy) models of bidding behaviour," Economics Series Working Papers 959, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    6. Laura Rondi & Paola Valbonesi, 2017. "Pre- and post-award outsourcing: Temporary partnership versus subcontracting in public procurement," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0211, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • H57 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Procurement
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies

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