Seminar Series

2022 - 2023

Speaker: Ansgar Wohlschlegel (Swansea U).

Title: “Simultaneous Versus Sequential Learning of Valuations: Theory and Evidence from New Zealand Home Sales”

joint with E. Feess, A. Grimes and Y. Saglam.

Date: Thursday, June 8th at 12h30 (Paris Time).

Abstract:  We consider sequential negotiation with bidders as a means for sellers to encourage bidders' acquisition of costly information. Such a mechanism comes at a cost for the seller as they are no longer able to screen bidders' ex-post information. We show theoretically that it dominates a standard auction with binding bids if the costs of information are sufficiently high. We then analyse a dataset of 1414 home sales transactions in New Zealand, where standard auctions coexist with so-called tenders which allow sellers to approach potential bidders sequentially. In line with our theory, we find that sellers are more likely to choose a Tender when trying to sell an idiosyncratic house, for which bidders need more effort to learn their valuations. Our results may carry over to other settings in which bidders face substantial information costs such as business sales or license auctions.

Here is, a link to the speaker’s and the FEELab website:

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/a.u.m.wohlschlegel/

https://sites.google.com/view/feelabtbs/

You are cordially invited to participate in the following seminar of the FEELab, which will take place in Room 204, Bosco building.

For more information, please contact: Pierre Mella-Barral p.mella-barral@tbs-education.fr