Discussion paper

DP2581 What Really Matters in Auction Design

The most important issues in auction design are the traditional concerns of competition policy-preventing collusive, predatory, and entry deterring behaviour. Ascending and uniform-price auctions are particularly vulnerable to these problems (we discuss radiospectrum and football TV-rights auctions, electricity markets, and takeover battles), and the Anglo-Dutch auction ? a hybrid of the sealed-bid and ascending auctions may often perform better. However, everything depends on the details of the context; the circumstances of the recent UK mobile-phone license auction made an ascending format ideal. We also discuss the current 3G spectrum auctions in Germany and the Netherlands. Auction design is a matter of ?horses for courses?, not ?one size fits all?.

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Citation

Klemperer, P (2000), ‘DP2581 What Really Matters in Auction Design‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 2581. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp2581