Auctions with costly information acquisition

Jacques Crémer, Yossi Spiegel, Charles Z. Zheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

We characterize optimal selling mechanisms in auction environments where bidders must incur a cost to learn their valuations. These mechanisms specify for each period, as a function of the bids in previous periods, which new potential buyers should be asked to bid. In addition, these mechanisms must induce the bidders to acquire information about their valuations and to reveal this information truthfully. Using a generalized Groves principle, we prove a very general "full extraction of the surplus" result: the seller can obtain the same profit as if he had full control over the bidders' acquisition of information and could have observed directly their valuations once they are informed. We also present appealing implementations of the optimal mechanism in special cases.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)41-72
Number of pages32
JournalEconomic Theory
Volume38
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2009

Funding

FundersFunder number
IIBR
National Science FoundationSES-0214471
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences0214471

    Keywords

    • Adverse selection
    • Auctions
    • Costly information
    • Groves
    • Mechanism design

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