IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jrefec/v58y2019i1d10.1007_s11146-017-9635-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Joint Bidding Reduce Competition? Evidence from Hong Kong Land Auctions

Author

Listed:
  • Jianfu Shen

    (Hang Seng Management College)

  • Frederik Pretorius

    (The University of Hong Kong)

  • Xin Li

    (Southern China University of Technology)

Abstract

This paper analyses firms’ bidding behavior in auctions for development land in Hong Kong. The real estate market in Hong Kong is considered to be oligopolistic as it is dominated by a few top real estate firms, which have strong financial strength/development capacity and large land banks. Joint bidding is used by other real estate firms (“large” firms) to pool resources/capital in order to compete with the top firms. We test whether joint bidding increases or decreases the level of competition in land auctions, using land auction data in Hong Kong from 1991 to 2011. We find that large real estate firms are more likely to be successful than top firms at auctions when bidding jointly. However, joint bidding/winning does not harm competition as reflected by the number of bids, bids per bidder and number of bidders. Land prices also increase significantly in auctions won by joint bidders or alliances of large developers. Our results suggest that joint bidding enhances competition by allowing large firms to act strategically by pooling their resources and act aggressively to compete with the top firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Jianfu Shen & Frederik Pretorius & Xin Li, 2019. "Does Joint Bidding Reduce Competition? Evidence from Hong Kong Land Auctions," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 111-132, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jrefec:v:58:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11146-017-9635-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11146-017-9635-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11146-017-9635-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11146-017-9635-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Rondeau & Pascal Courty & Maurice Doyon, 2016. "Simultaneous Allocation of Bundled Goods through Auctions: Assessing the Case for Joint Bidding," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(3), pages 838-859.
    2. Gerlach, Stefan & Peng, Wensheng, 2005. "Bank lending and property prices in Hong Kong," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 461-481, February.
    3. Zan Yang & Rongrong Ren & Hongyu Liu & Huan Zhang, 2015. "Land leasing and local government behaviour in China: Evidence from Beijing," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(5), pages 841-856, April.
    4. Ashenfelter, Orley C, 1978. "Estimating the Effect of Training Programs on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(1), pages 47-57, February.
    5. Raphael Calel, 2010. "Auctioning conservation contracts in thepresence of externalities," GRI Working Papers 22, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    6. Hongbin Cai & J. Vernon Henderson & Qinghua Zhang, 2013. "China's land market auctions: evidence of corruption?," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 44(3), pages 488-521, September.
    7. Anne Haila, 2000. "Real Estate in Global Cities: Singapore and Hong Kong as Property States," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(12), pages 2241-2256, November.
    8. Sean Cleary, 1999. "The Relationship between Firm Investment and Financial Status," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 673-692, April.
    9. Takako Idee & Shinichiro Iwata & Teruyuki Taguchi, 2011. "Auction Price Formation with Costly Occupants: Evidence Using Data from the Osaka District Court," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 84-98, January.
    10. Larry M. DeBrock & James L. Smith, 1983. "Joint Bidding, Information Pooling, and the Performance of Petroleum Lease Auctions," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 395-404, Autumn.
    11. Ching, Stephen & Fu, Yuming, 2003. "Contestability of the urban land market: an event study of Hong Kong land auctions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 695-720, October.
    12. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    13. Graham, Daniel A & Marshall, Robert C, 1987. "Collusive Bidder Behavior at Single-Object Second-Price and English Auctions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(6), pages 1217-1239, December.
    14. Maurice Tse & Frederik Pretorius & K. Chau, 2011. "Market Sentiments, Winner’s Curse and Bidding Outcome in Land Auctions," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 247-274, April.
    15. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2002. "Simple and Bias-Corrected Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," NBER Technical Working Papers 0283, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Joseph T.L. Ooi & C.F. Sirmans & Geoffrey K. Turnbull, 2006. "Price Formation Under Small Numbers Competition: Evidence from Land Auctions in Singapore," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 34(1), pages 51-76, March.
    17. Hendricks, Kenneth & Porter, Robert H, 1992. "Joint Bidding in Federal OCS Auctions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 506-511, May.
    18. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    19. Lung-Fei Lee, 1982. "Some Approaches to the Correction of Selectivity Bias," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(3), pages 355-372.
    20. McMillen, Daniel P. & Jarmin, Ronald & Thorsnes, Paul, 1992. "Selection bias and land development in the monocentric city model," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 273-284, May.
    21. Steven W. Millsaps & Mack Ott, 1985. "Risk aversion, risk sharing, and joint bidding: a study of outer continental shelf petroleum auctions," Working Papers 1985-014, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    22. Jeffrey A. Livingston, 2005. "How Valuable Is a Good Reputation? A Sample Selection Model of Internet Auctions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 453-465, August.
    23. Zhi Dong & Tien Sing, 2014. "Developer Heterogeneity and Competitive Land Bidding," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 441-466, April.
    24. C.E. Moody Jr. & W.J. Kruvant, 1988. "Joint Bidding, Entry, and the Price of OCS Leases," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(2), pages 276-284, Summer.
    25. David Dale-Johnson & Christian L. Redfearn & W. Jan Brzeski, 2005. "From Central Planning to Centrality: Krakow's Land Prices After Poland's Big Bang," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 33(2), pages 269-297, June.
    26. Carl R. Gwin & Seow-Eng Ong & Andrew C. Spieler, 2005. "Auctions and Land Values: An Experimental Analysis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(12), pages 2245-2259, November.
    27. Beshears, John, 2013. "The performance of corporate alliances: Evidence from oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(2), pages 324-346.
    28. Jianfu Shen & Frederik Pretorius, 2013. "Binomial option pricing models for real estate development," Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(5), pages 418-440, August.
    29. Steven W. Millsaps & Mack Ott, 1985. "Risk Aversion, Risk Sharing, and Joint Bidding: A Study of Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Auctions," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 64(4), pages 372-386.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jianfu Shen & Kwong Wing Chau, 2022. "The Effect of Access to the Public Debt Market on Corporate Financing Decisions: The Case of REITs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Jenny Jing Wang & Jianfu Shen & Frederik Pretorius, 2023. "Valuing options to renew at future market value: the case of commercial property leases," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-35, December.
    3. Deininger, Klaus W. & Ali, Daniel Ayalew & Neyter, Roman, 2023. "Impacts of a mandatory shift to decentralized online auctions on revenue from public land leases in Ukraine," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 432-450.
    4. Yung Yau & Tin Choi Cheung, 2021. "Revisiting the Concept of the Property State: Private Landowners and Suburban Development in Hong Kong," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(2), pages 427-464, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jianfu Shen & Frederik Pretorius & K. W. Chau, 2018. "Land Auctions with Budget Constraints," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 443-471, April.
    2. Zhang, Yunyi & Gong, Pu, 2018. "IPV model with Cobb–Douglas and reference-dependent utility functions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 510(C), pages 121-131.
    3. Boone, Audra L. & Mulherin, J. Harold, 2011. "Do private equity consortiums facilitate collusion in takeover bidding?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 1475-1495.
    4. Cramton, Peter C, 1995. "Money Out of Thin Air: The Nationwide Narrowband PCS Auction," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 267-343, Summer.
    5. Zhi Dong & Tien Sing, 2014. "Developer Heterogeneity and Competitive Land Bidding," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 441-466, April.
    6. Quang Vuong & Sandra Campo & Isabelle Perrigne, 2003. "Asymmetry in first-price auctions with affiliated private values," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(2), pages 179-207.
    7. Marquez, Robert & Singh, Rajdeep, 2013. "The economics of club bidding and value creation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 493-505.
    8. Yongheng Deng & Joseph Gyourko & Jing Wu, 2012. "Land and House Price Measurement in China," NBER Working Papers 18403, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. José Manuel Mansilla-Fernández & Juliette Milgram-Baleix, 2023. "Working capital management, financial constraints and exports: evidence from European and US manufacturers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(4), pages 1769-1810, April.
    10. Christian Hopp & Christian Lukas, 2014. "Evaluation frequency and evaluator’s experience: the case of venture capital investment firms and monitoring intensity in stage financing," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(2), pages 649-674, May.
    11. Maurice Tse & Frederik Pretorius & K. Chau, 2011. "Market Sentiments, Winner’s Curse and Bidding Outcome in Land Auctions," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 247-274, April.
    12. Sumit Agarwal & Jing Li & Ernie Teo & Alan Cheong, 2018. "Strategic Sequential Bidding for Government Land Auction Sales – Evidence from Singapore," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 535-565, November.
    13. Yongheng Deng & Joseph Gyourko & Jing Wu, 2012. "Land and Housing Price Measurement in China," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Alexandra Heath & Frank Packer & Callan Windsor (ed.),Property Markets and Financial Stability, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    14. Hu, Conghui & Liu, Yu-Jane, 2015. "Valuing diversity: CEOs' career experiences and corporate investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 11-31.
    15. Yung Yau & Tin Choi Cheung, 2021. "Revisiting the Concept of the Property State: Private Landowners and Suburban Development in Hong Kong," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(2), pages 427-464, March.
    16. Blumrosen, Liad & Solan, Eilon, 2023. "Selling spectrum in the presence of shared networks: The case of the Israeli 5G auction," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    17. Bernardo Lara & Alejandra Mizala & Andrea Repetto, 2009. "The Effectiveness of Private Voucher Education: Evidence from Structural School Switches," Documentos de Trabajo 263, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    18. James J. Heckman, 2005. "Micro Data, Heterogeneity and the Evaluation of Public Policy Part 2," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 49(1), pages 16-44, March.
    19. Théo Nicolas, 2022. "Short-term financial constraints and SMEs’ investment decision: evidence from the working capital channel," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1885-1914, April.
    20. Stephen Buschbom & Carolyn Dehring & Neil Dunse & Henry Munneke, 2018. "Sealed-Bid Auctions and Fixed Price Sales: Seller Choice in Housing Markets," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 525-545, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jrefec:v:58:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11146-017-9635-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.