Obviousness around the clock

Yves Breitmoser and Sebastian Schweighofer-Kodritsch ()
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Yves Breitmoser: Bielefeld University
Sebastian Schweighofer-Kodritsch: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Experimental Economics, 2022, vol. 25, issue 2, No 4, 483-513

Abstract: Abstract Li (Am Econ Rev 107(11):3257–3287, 2017) introduces a theoretical notion of obviousness of a dominant strategy, to be used as a refinement in mechanism design. This notion is supported by experimental evidence that bidding is closer to dominance in the dynamic ascending-clock auction than the static second-price auction (private values), noting that dominance is theoretically obvious in the former but not the latter. We replicate his experimental study and add three intermediate auction formats that decompose the designs’ differences to quantify the cumulative effects of (1) simply seeing an ascending-price clock (after bid submission), (2) bidding dynamically on the clock, and (3) getting (theoretically irrelevant) drop-out information about other bidders. The theory predicts dominance to become obvious through (2), dynamic bidding. We find no significant behavioral effect of (2), however, while the feedback effects (1) and (3) are highly significant. We conclude that behavioral differences between second-price and ascending-clock auctions offer rather limited support for the theory of obviousness and that framing has surprisingly large potential in mechanism design.

Keywords: Experiments; Private value auctions; Strategy-proofness; Obviousness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D44 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10683-021-09720-z

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