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Auctioning Long-Term Projects under Financial Constraints

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  • Martimort, David
  • Arve, Malin

Abstract

We consider a procurement auction for the provision of a basic service to which an add-on must later be appended. Potential providers are symmetric, have private information on their cost for the basic service and the winning firm must also implement the add-on. To finance cost-reducing activities related to the add-on, this firm may need extra funding by outside financiers. Non-verifiable effort in reducing these costs creates a moral hazard problem which makes the firm’s payoff function for the second period concave in returns over the relevant range. This concavity has two effects: It makes it more attractive to backload payments to facilitate information revelation and uncertainty on the cost of the add-on introduces a background risk which requires a risk premium. In this context, we characterize the optimal intertemporal structure of payments to the winning firm, equilibrium bidding behavior and reserve prices in the first-price auction with bidders.

Suggested Citation

  • Martimort, David & Arve, Malin, 2023. "Auctioning Long-Term Projects under Financial Constraints," TSE Working Papers 23-1469, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised May 2024.
  • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:128474
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

    Auctions; procurement; financial constraints; dynamic mechanism design; asymmetric information; uncertainty; endogenous risk aversion.;
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