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Auction Design by an Informed Seller: The Optimality of Reserve Price Signaling

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  • Xin Zhao

    (Economics Discipline Group, University of Technology Sydney)

Abstract

This paper studies mechanism design by a seller privately informed of the quality of an indivisible object. The privacy of the seller�s information matters for mechanism design: selecting a mechanism that maximizes the seller�s profit when her information is public is not incentive compatible for the seller when her information is private, as a lower-quality seller has an incentive to mimic a higher-quality seller. I show that reserve prices are the least costly device to separate higher-quality sellers from lower-quality ones. In equilibria that maximize the expected profit of every type of the seller among all separating equilibria, the lowest-quality seller adopts her public-information optimal mechanism, and each higher-quality seller adopts a mechanism that differs from her public-information optimal mechanism only in that the reserve prices are higher.

Suggested Citation

  • Xin Zhao, 2018. "Auction Design by an Informed Seller: The Optimality of Reserve Price Signaling," Working Paper Series 53, Economics Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    • Handle: RePEc:uts:ecowps:53
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    File URL: https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/2019-01/Auction%20Design%20by%20an%20Informed%20Seller_Xin%20Zhao_CJE.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jullien, B. & Mariotti, T., 2006. "Auction and the informed seller problem," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 225-258, August.
    2. Tröger, Thomas & Mylovanov, Timofiy, 2012. "Mechanism design by an informed principal: the quasi-linear private-values case," Working Papers 12-14, University of Mannheim, Department of Economics.
    3. Myerson, Roger B, 1983. "Mechanism Design by an Informed Principal," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(6), pages 1767-1797, November.
    4. Roger B. Myerson, 1981. "Optimal Auction Design," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 58-73, February.
    5. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 1992. "The Principal-Agent Relationship with an Informed Principal, II: Common Values," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(1), pages 1-42, January.
    6. Banks, Jeffrey S & Sobel, Joel, 1987. "Equilibrium Selection in Signaling Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(3), pages 647-661, May.
    7. Cai, Hongbin & Riley, John & Ye, Lixin, 2007. "Reserve price signaling," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 253-268, July.
    8. Paul Milgrom & Ilya Segal, 2002. "Envelope Theorems for Arbitrary Choice Sets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 583-601, March.
    9. Maskin, Eric & Tirole, Jean, 1990. "The Principal-Agent Relationship with an Informed Principal: The Case of Private Values," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(2), pages 379-409, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Onur A. Koska & Frank Stähler, 2022. "Reserve Prices as Signals," CESifo Working Paper Series 9581, CESifo.
    2. Toshihiro Tsuchihashi, 2020. "Reserve price signaling in first-price auctions with an uncertain number of bidders," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 49(4), pages 1081-1103, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mechanism design; informed principal; reserve price; signaling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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