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How the U.S. Treasury should auction its debt

Author

Listed:
  • V. V. Chari
  • Robert J. Weber

Abstract

The U.S. Treasury could raise more revenue if it changed the way it auctions its debt. Under the current procedure, all bidders whose competitive bids for Treasury securities are accepted pay the prices they bid; different winning bidders, that is, pay different prices. Instead, economic theory says, all winning bidders should all pay the same price?that of the highest bid not accepted, or the price that just clears the market. This procedural change would increase the revenue that Treasury auctions raise primarily because it would decrease the amount of resources that bidders would spend collecting information about what other bidders are likely to do. It would also reduce the incentives for traders to attempt to manipulate the securities market.

Suggested Citation

  • V. V. Chari & Robert J. Weber, 1992. "How the U.S. Treasury should auction its debt," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 16(Fall), pages 3-12.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmqr:y:1992:i:fall:p:3-12:n:v.16no.4
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lawrence M. Ausubel & Peter Cramton & Marek Pycia & Marzena Rostek & Marek Weretka, 2014. "Demand Reduction and Inefficiency in Multi-Unit Auctions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(4), pages 1366-1400.
    2. Menezes, Flavio M., 1995. "On the optimality of Treasury Bill auctions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 273-279, September.
    3. Keunkwan Ryu & Gyung-Rok Kim & Seonghwan Oh, 2004. "Discriminatory vs Uniform Price Auction: Auction Revenue," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 539, Econometric Society.
    4. Saikat Nandi, 1997. "Treasury auctions: what do the recent models and results tell us?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 82(Q 4), pages 4-15.
    5. Hans Haller & Yvan Lengwiler, 1998. "A discrete model of discriminatory price auctions - an alternative to Menezes-Monteiro," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1998-08, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Lawrence M. Ausubel & Peter Cramton, 1997. "Auctioning Securities," Papers of Peter Cramton 98wpas, University of Maryland, Department of Economics - Peter Cramton, revised Mar 1998.
    7. Menezes F. M. & Monteiro, P. K., 1996. "Existence of equilibrium in a descriminatory price auction," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 60-61, February.
    8. Nyborg, Kjell G. & Sundaresan, Suresh, 1996. "Discriminatory versus uniform Treasury auctions: Evidence from when-issued transactions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 63-104, September.
    9. Nina Boyarchenko & David O. Lucca & Laura Veldkamp, 2015. "Taking orders and taking notes: dealer information sharing in financial markets," Staff Reports 726, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    10. Robert Jörin & Yvan Lengwiler, 2004. "Learning from Financial Markets: Auctioning Tariff-Rate Quotas in Agricultural Trade," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 140(IV), pages 521-541, December.
    11. Ajay Shah, 1995. "The Indian IPO Market: Suggestions for Institutional Arrangements," Finance 9507004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Yvan Lengwiler, 1999. "The multiple unit auction with variable supply," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 14(2), pages 373-392.
    13. Kenneth D. Garbade, 2004. "The institutionalization of treasury note and bond auctions, 1970-75," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue May, pages 29-45.
    14. Kjell Sunnevåg, 2003. "Auction Design for the Allocation of Emission Permits in the Presence of Market Power," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(3), pages 385-400, November.
    15. Goldreich, David, 2003. "Underpricing in Discriminatory and Uniform-Price Treasury Auctions," CEPR Discussion Papers 4105, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Daripa, Arupratan, 2001. "A theory of treasury auctions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 743-767, November.
    17. Brett E Katzman, 2009. "Asymptotic properties of equilibrium in discriminatory and uniform price ipv multi-unit auctions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(2), pages 834-846.
    18. Guillermo Ordonez & Daniel Neuhann & Harold Cole, 2017. "A Walrasian Theory of Sovereign Debt Auctions with Asymmetric Information," 2017 Meeting Papers 787, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Jacques Percebois, 2015. "Support mechanisms for renewable energies: their respective strengths and weaknesses. A comparison with the common agricultural policy," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(1), pages 43-58.
    20. Habib, Michel A. & Ziegler, Alexandre, 2007. "Why government bonds are sold by auction and corporate bonds by posted-price selling," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 343-367, July.
    21. Skully, David W., 1999. "The Economics Of Trq Administration," Working Papers 14584, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    22. Daniel Heller & Yvan Lengwiler, 1998. "The auctions of Swiss government bonds: should the Treasury price discriminate or not?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1998-11, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    23. Arkadiusz Babczuk & Andrzej Dudek, 2007. "Wybór formuły przetargowej na skarbowe papiery wartościowe," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 10, pages 85-107.
    24. Katzman, Brett, 1999. "A Two Stage Sequential Auction with Multi-Unit Demands," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 77-99, May.
    25. Michel A. Habib & Alexandre Ziegler, 2003. "Why Government Bonds Are Sold by Auction and Corporate Bonds by Posted-Price Selling," FAME Research Paper Series rp78, International Center for Financial Asset Management and Engineering.

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    Keywords

    Government securities;

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