Sequential Information Disclosure in Auctions

37 Pages Posted: 4 Jul 2013

See all articles by Dirk Bergemann

Dirk Bergemann

Yale University - Cowles Foundation - Department of Economics; Yale University - Cowles Foundation

Achim Wambach

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research; University of Mannheim; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

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Date Written: July 3, 2013

Abstract

We consider the design of an optimal auction in which the seller can determine the allocation and the disclosure rule of the mechanism. Thus, in contrast to the standard analysis of a optimal auctions, the seller can explicitly design the disclosure of the information received by each bidder as his private information.

We show that the optimal disclosure rule is a sequential disclosure rule, implemented in an ascending price auction. In the optimal disclosure mechanism, each losing bidder learns his true valuation, but the winning bidder only learns that his valuation is sufficiently high to win the auction. We show that in the optimal auction, the posterior incentive and participation constraints of all the bidders are satisfied. In the special case in which the bidders have no private information initially, the seller can extract the entire surplus.

Keywords: Independent private value auction, Sequential disclosure, Ascending auctions, Information structure, Interim equilibrium, Posterior equilibrium

JEL Classification: C72, D44, D82, D83

Suggested Citation

Bergemann, Dirk and Wambach, Achim, Sequential Information Disclosure in Auctions (July 3, 2013). Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper No. 1900, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2289220 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2289220

Dirk Bergemann (Contact Author)

Yale University - Cowles Foundation - Department of Economics ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.yale.edu/~dirk/

Yale University - Cowles Foundation

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Achim Wambach

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

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Germany

University of Mannheim ( email )

Universitaetsbibliothek Mannheim
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Mannheim, 68131
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

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