Expectations-Based Loss Aversion in Common-Value Auctions: Extensive vs. Intensive Risk

Benjamin Balzer and Antonio Rosato

No 50, Working Paper Series from Economics Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney

Abstract: We analyze the behavior of expectations-based loss-averse bidders in frist-price and second-price common-value auctions. Highlighting the distinction between the uncertainty bidders face over whether they win the auction (extensive risk) and that over the value of the prize conditional on winning (intensive risk), we show that loss-averse bidders react differently to these different kinds of risk. In particular, the intensive risk pushes bidders to behave less aggressively in a common-value environment compared to one with private values. Yet, despite this "precautionary biddinging" effect, in equilibrium bidders can be exposed to the "winner's curse". We consider two alternative specifcations for how bidders assess outcomes as either gains or losses. Under narrow bracketing, bidders experience gains and losses separately over whether they receive the prize and how much they pay. Under broad bracketing, instead, bidders assess gains and losses over their net surplus. With narrow bracketing, first-price auctions expose bidders to less intensive risk and yield a higher expected revenue than second-price auctions, while the opposite result might hold with broad bracketing.

Keywords: Reference-Dependent Preferences; Loss Aversion; Common-Value Auctions; Winner?s Curse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D44 D81 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2018-10-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-mic and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/2018-12/common%20values_draft.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:uts:ecowps:50

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from Economics Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Duncan Ford ().