Econometrica

Journal Of The Econometric Society

An International Society for the Advancement of Economic
Theory in its Relation to Statistics and Mathematics

Edited by: Guido W. Imbens • Print ISSN: 0012-9682 • Online ISSN: 1468-0262

Econometrica: Jan, 2004, Volume 72, Issue 1

Notes and Comments the Amsterdam Auction

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2004.00484.x
p. 281-294

Jacob K. Goeree, Theo Offerman

The Amsterdam auction has been used to sell real estate in the Dutch capital for centuries. By awarding a premium to the highest losing bidder, the Amsterdam auction favors weak bidders without having the implementation difficulties of Myerson's (1981) optimal auction. In a series of experiments, we compare the standard first‐price and English auctions, the optimal auction, and two variants of the Amsterdam auction. With strongly asymmetric bidders, the second‐price Amsterdam auction raises substantially more revenues than standard formats and only slightly less than the optimal auction.


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