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Journal of Banking & Finance Vol. 71 2016

Do traders strategically time their pledges during real-world Walrasian auctions?

James Eaves1; Jeffrey Williams2; Gabriel J. Power1

1 Université Laval · 2 University of California, Davis

Abstract

Experimental research suggests the Walrasian tâtonnement auction encourages traders to under-reveal preferences, even encouraging initial pledges contrary to true desires, because pledges are not binding. We analyze the timing and characteristics of individual pledges and trades during 9604 auctions for redbeans conducted by the Tokyo Grain Exchange. We find no evidence of contrarian pledging and little evidence of under-revelation – as many traders over-reveal as under-reveal. Most traders pledge seriously from the beginning. Despite the considerable heterogeneity in pledging behavior across individual traders, these differences appear to have no relationship with traders’ profits, nor do they appear to affect the achievement of equilibrium.

DOI
10.1016/j.jbankfin.2016.04.018
Volume
71
Pages
109-118
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

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