A Comment on “Can Relaxation of Beliefs Rationalize the Winner's Curse?: An Experimental Study”
Ivanov, Levin, and Niederle (2010) use a common-value second-price auction experiment to reject beliefs-based explanations for the winner's curse. ILN's conclusion, however, stems from the misuse of theoretical arguments. Beliefs-based models are even compatible with some observations from ILN's experiment.