Asymmetric Information and Adverse Selection in Mauritian Slave Auctions

Georges Dionne (), Pascal St-Amour and Désiré Vencatachellum ()

No 08-40, Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series from Swiss Finance Institute

Abstract: Information asymmetry is a necessary prerequisite for testing adverse selection. This paper applies this sequence of tests to Mauritian slave auctions. Dynamic auction theory with private value highlights more aggressive bidding by uninformed bidders and higher prices when an informed participant is active. We conjecture that observable family links between buyer and seller entailed superior information and find a strong price premium when a related buyer purchased a slave, indicative of information asymmetry. We then test for adverse selection using sale motivation. Our results indicate large discounts on voluntary as compared to involuntary sales. Consistent with adverse selection, the market anticipated that predominantly lowproductivity slaves would be brought to the market in voluntary sales.

Keywords: Information Asymmetry; Adverse Selection; English Auction; Private Value; Slavery; Mauritius. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D82 N37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2008-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1311324 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Asymmetric Information and Adverse Selection in Mauritian Slave Auctions (2009)
Working Paper: Asymmetric information and adverse selection in Mauritian slave auctions (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp0840

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series from Swiss Finance Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ridima Mittal ().