← Search

Review of Financial Studies Vol. 6 No. 4 1993

Auctions of Divisible Goods: On the Rationale for the Treasury Experiment

Kerry Back; Jaime F. Zender

Abstract

[We compare a sealed-bid uniform-price auction (the Treasury's experimental format) with a sealed-bid discriminatory auction (the Treasury's format heretofore), assuming the good is perfectly divisible. We show that the auction theory that prompted the experiment, which assumes single-unit demands, does not adequately describe the bidding game for Treasury securities. Collusive strategies are self-enforcing in uniform-price divisible-good auctions. In these equilibria, the seller's expected revenue is lower than in equilibria of discriminatory auctions.]

Volume
6
Issue
4
Pages
733-764
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib

Cite