Theory and Design of Divisible-Good Auctions

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该奖项资助可分割商品拍卖的经济理论研究。 有许多可分割商品的例子;例如，经济学家将石油归类为“可分割”商品，因为它可以以不同的数量出售。 石油是按加仑、加仑、升、桶和油轮装载量出售的。 这与汽车等“不可分割”的商品形成对比。 没有人会买半辆汽车，所以汽车是一次卖一辆，许多可分割的商品是通过拍卖出售的，一个主要的例子是美国国库券。 最近的研究导致了许多新的结果，不同类型的拍卖不可分割的货物可能的属性。 然而，我们对可分割物品的拍卖知之甚少，研究者们建立了一个新的模型，并分析了三种不同的拍卖程序，这三种拍卖程序在实践中被广泛使用。 它们决定了这些拍卖如何适用于可分割和不可分割的商品。 他们考虑哪种拍卖在总拍卖收入和最终结果的效率方面上级。 最后，他们决定的条件下，多个相关的货物应联合拍卖，而不是进行单独的个人auctions.This研究可能有实质性的更广泛的影响，更好的拍卖机制的社会效益是巨大的。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This award funds research in the economic theory of auctions for divisible goods. There are many examples of divisible goods; for example, economists classify oil as a 'divisible' good because it can be sold in different quantities. Oil is sold by the quart, by the gallon, by the liter, by the barrel, and by the tankerload. Contrast this to 'indivisible' goods such as automobiles. No one will buy half of an automobile, so autos are sold one at a time.Many divisible goods are sold through auctions; a leading example is U.S. Treasury Bills. Recent research has led to many new results about the likely properties of different kinds of auctions of indivisible goods. However, we know much less about how to auction divisible goods.The PIs build and analyze a new model that allws them to compare three different kinds of auction procedures that are widely used in practice. They determine how these auctions work for both divisible and indivisible goods. They consider which kind of auction is superior in terms of total auction revenue and in terms of the efficiency of the final outcome. Finally, they determine conditions under which multiple related goods should be auctioned jointly rather than conducting separate individual auctions.This research could have substantial broader impact; the societal benefit to better auction mechanisms is large.