Identity-Compatible Auctions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Zeng, Haoyuan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zeng, Haoyuan
author_facet Zeng, Haoyuan
contents This paper studies the incentives of the seller and buyers to shill bid in a single-item auction. An auction is seller identity-compatible if the seller cannot profit from pretending to be one or more bidders via fake identities. It is buyer identity-compatible if no buyer profits from posing as more than one bidder. Lit auctions reveal the number of bidders, whereas dark auctions conceal the information. We characterize three classic selling mechanisms -- first-price, second-price, and posted-price -- based on identity compatibility. We show the importance of concealing the number of bidders, which enables the implementation of a broader range of outcome rules. In particular, no optimal lit auction is ex-post seller identity-compatible, while the dark first-price auction (with reserve) achieves the goal.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_00723
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Identity-Compatible Auctions
Zeng, Haoyuan
Theoretical Economics
This paper studies the incentives of the seller and buyers to shill bid in a single-item auction. An auction is seller identity-compatible if the seller cannot profit from pretending to be one or more bidders via fake identities. It is buyer identity-compatible if no buyer profits from posing as more than one bidder. Lit auctions reveal the number of bidders, whereas dark auctions conceal the information. We characterize three classic selling mechanisms -- first-price, second-price, and posted-price -- based on identity compatibility. We show the importance of concealing the number of bidders, which enables the implementation of a broader range of outcome rules. In particular, no optimal lit auction is ex-post seller identity-compatible, while the dark first-price auction (with reserve) achieves the goal.
title Identity-Compatible Auctions
topic Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00723