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The Herodotus paradox

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  • Baye, Michael R.
  • Kovenock, Dan
  • de Vries, Casper G.

Abstract

The Babylonian bridal auction, described by Herodotus, is regarded as one of the earliest uses of an auction in history. Yet, to our knowledge, the literature lacks a formal equilibrium analysis of this auction. We provide such an analysis for the two-player case with complete and incomplete information, and in so doing identify what we call the “Herodotus paradox.”

Suggested Citation

  • Baye, Michael R. & Kovenock, Dan & de Vries, Casper G., 2012. "The Herodotus paradox," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 399-406.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:74:y:2012:i:1:p:399-406
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2011.07.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Baye & Dan Kovenock & Casper Vries, 2012. "Contests with rank-order spillovers," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 51(2), pages 315-350, October.
    2. Baye, Michael R. & Kovenock, Dan & de Vries, Casper G., 2012. "The Herodotus paradox," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 399-406.
    3. Riley, John G & Samuelson, William F, 1981. "Optimal Auctions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 381-392, June.
    4. Bhattacharyya, Sugato & Lipman, Barton L, 1995. "Ex ante versus Interim Rationality and the Existence of Bubbles," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 6(3), pages 469-494, November.
    5. Maskin, Eric S & Riley, John G, 1984. "Optimal Auctions with Risk Averse Buyers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1473-1518, November.
    6. Milgrom, Paul R & Weber, Robert J, 1982. "A Theory of Auctions and Competitive Bidding," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(5), pages 1089-1122, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. An analysis of the oldest auction in history
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-01-05 21:52:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Kaplan, Todd R. & Zamir, Shmuel, 2015. "Advances in Auctions," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications,, Elsevier.
    2. Baye, Michael R. & Kovenock, Dan & de Vries, Casper G., 2012. "The Herodotus paradox," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 399-406.
    3. Ispano, Alessandro, 2015. "A note on the equilibria of the unbounded traveler’s dilemma," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 52-54.
    4. Fey, Mark, 2024. "An undecidable statement regarding zero-sum games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 19-26.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Auctions; Contests; Mixed strategy; Interim equilibrium; Ex ante equilibrium; Fubiniʼs Theorem;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

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