The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions

With a laboratory experiment, we study the impact of buy-options and the corresponding buy-price on revenues and bidding behavior in (online) proxy-auctions with independent private valuations. We show that temporary buy-options may reduce revenues for two reasons: At low buy-prices, the application...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ronald Peeters, Martin Strobel, Dries Vermeulen, Markus Walzl
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2016-03-01
Series:Games
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/7/1/8
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author Ronald Peeters
Martin Strobel
Dries Vermeulen
Markus Walzl
author_facet Ronald Peeters
Martin Strobel
Dries Vermeulen
Markus Walzl
author_sort Ronald Peeters
collection DOAJ
description With a laboratory experiment, we study the impact of buy-options and the corresponding buy-price on revenues and bidding behavior in (online) proxy-auctions with independent private valuations. We show that temporary buy-options may reduce revenues for two reasons: At low buy-prices, the application of the buy-option avoids revenue-enhancing bidding; at high buy-prices, bidders are reluctant to bid above the option price (even though the option is no longer available once an auction has started). The latter suggests a particular type of anchoring, where bidders use the buy-price to update their expectations about the strengths of their opponents.
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spelling doaj.art-58748b7ba0f44fd28c2d9008f7517e902022-12-21T17:57:30ZengMDPI AGGames2073-43362016-03-0171810.3390/g7010008g7010008The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in AuctionsRonald Peeters0Martin Strobel1Dries Vermeulen2Markus Walzl3Department of Economics, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, Maastricht 6200 MD, The NetherlandsDepartment of Economics, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, Maastricht 6200 MD, The NetherlandsDepartment of Quantitative Economics, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, Maastricht 6200 MD, The NetherlandsDepartment of Economics, Innsbruck University, Universitätsstr. 15, Innsbruck A-6020, AustriaWith a laboratory experiment, we study the impact of buy-options and the corresponding buy-price on revenues and bidding behavior in (online) proxy-auctions with independent private valuations. We show that temporary buy-options may reduce revenues for two reasons: At low buy-prices, the application of the buy-option avoids revenue-enhancing bidding; at high buy-prices, bidders are reluctant to bid above the option price (even though the option is no longer available once an auction has started). The latter suggests a particular type of anchoring, where bidders use the buy-price to update their expectations about the strengths of their opponents.http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/7/1/8buy-optionsonline auctionsexperimentsanchoringC72C91D44D82
spellingShingle Ronald Peeters
Martin Strobel
Dries Vermeulen
Markus Walzl
The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions
Games
buy-options
online auctions
experiments
anchoring
C72
C91
D44
D82
title The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions
title_full The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions
title_fullStr The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions
title_short The Impact of the Irrelevant: Temporary Buy-Options and Bidding Behavior in Auctions
title_sort impact of the irrelevant temporary buy options and bidding behavior in auctions
topic buy-options
online auctions
experiments
anchoring
C72
C91
D44
D82
url http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/7/1/8
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