IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cwl/cwldpp/495.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Model for the Distribution of the Number of Bidders in an Auction

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans

Abstract

The distribution of the number of bidders in auctions with uncertain numbers is usually assumed to be Poisson. The observed distribution, for example in OCS Federal Offshore Oil Lease Sales, is apparently not Poisson. A simple model is presented showing that if the objects have different values and individuals tend to only bid on objects with high value, then the resulting distribution of the number of bidders will not be Poisson. The results of the model correspond closely to data observed in Federal Offshore Oil lease auctions and the model is simple enough so that it may be of practical use to an individual participating in such an auction.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans, 1978. "A Model for the Distribution of the Number of Bidders in an Auction," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 495, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:495
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d04/d0495.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ballesteros-Pérez, Pablo & del Campo-Hitschfeld, Maria Luisa & Mora-Melià, Daniel & Domínguez, David, 2015. "Modeling bidding competitiveness and position performance in multi-attribute construction auctions," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 2(C), pages 24-35.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cwl:cwldpp:495. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Brittany Ladd (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cowleus.html .

    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.