We study the effects of the recent economic crisis on firms' bidding behavior and markups in sealed bid auctions. Using data from Austrian construction procurements, we estimate bidders' construction costs within a private value auction model. We find that markups of all bids submitted decrease by 1.5 percentage points in the recent economic crisis, markups of winning bids decrease by 3.3 percentage points. We also find that without the government stimulus package this decrease would have been larger. These two pieces of evidence point to pro-cyclical markups. (authors' abstract)

We experimentally study the effects of allotment - the division of an item into homogeneous units - in independent private value auctions. We compare a single-item, first-price auction with two equivalent treatments with allotment: a two-unit discriminatory auction and two simultaneous single-unit first-price auctions. We find that allotment mitigates overbidding, with this effect being stronger in the discriminatory auction. In the allotment treatments, we observe large and persistent bid spreading. Across treatments, the discriminatory auction is the least efficient and generates the lowest revenue.

In a deregulated electricity market, auction serves as a primary pricing tool in various segments of the market including day-ahead, real time, ancillary services markets, and Financial Transmission Rights (FTRs) market. Deregulated power markets around the world use different auction strategies that exist in the literature, since very little comparative guidelines exist as to the relative merits of these strategies. In this thesis, a computational methodology and its solution framework are developed to evaluate the impact of an auction strategy on the equilibrium prices in a constrained network with multiple generators at nodes, and where transactions are settled using the optimal power flow (OPF) program. The methodology is tested on a power market represented by a sample 12-bus IEEE network available in the MATPOWER software, which is reconfigured to allow multiple generators to supply power at a bus. The network is used as a platform to comprehensively assess the performance of uniform price auction, discriminatory auction, and second-price uniform auction. Auction rules are used to update generator costs, which are then introduced into the OPF program for obtaining optimal price and quantity allocations. This Auction-OPF procedure is embedded within a game theoretic model that obtains the equilibrium bidding strategies and the corresponding prices and quantities for the network. A detailed comparison of the auction mechanisms is carried out using different measures of performance such as revenue, average prices, and quantity weighted average prices. The comparison shows that there is, perhaps, an appreciable difference among the auction mechanisms. However, to statistically confirm the impact of auction choices, a mixed level factorial experiment is designed with auction strategy, network load, and congestion as three different factors and a closeness measure (defined as the difference between average total revenue and the average total cost of generators in the network per hour) as the responsible variable. An analysis of variance conducted on the experimental outcomes indicates that the load level and the auction strategy significantly affect the network performance. The presence market power under the auction strategies is examined through two well known indices, Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index (HHI) and Lerners Index. It is concluded from the HHI values that all three auction strategies allow the market to be moderately competitive. The Lerners index values show that, while discriminatory auction results in highest bid markup, second price uniform auction induces bidding at or close to the marginal cost.

This thesis concerns the interdisciplinary field of combinatorial auctions, combining the fields of computer science, optimization and economics. A combinatorial auction is an auction where many items are sold simultaneously and where bidders may submit indivisible combinatorial bids on groups of items. It is commonly believed that good solutions to the allocation problem can be achieved by allowing combinatorial bidding. Determining who wins in a combinatorial auction is fundamentally different from a traditional single-item auction because we are faced with a hard and potentially intractable optimization problem. Also, unless we are limited to truthful mechanisms, game theoretic analysis of the strategic behavior of bidders is still an open problem. We have chosen primarily to study the first-price combinatorial auction, a natural auction widely used in practice. Theoretical analysis of this type of auction is difficult and little has been done previously. In this thesis we investigate and discuss three fundamental questions with significant practical implications for combinatorial auctions. First, because the number of possible bids grows exponentially with the number of items, limitations on the number of bids are typically required. This gives rise to a problem since bidders are unlikely to choose the "correct" bids that make up the globally optimal solution. We provide evidence that an expressive and compact bidding language can be more important than finding the optimal solution. Second, given a first-price (sealed-bid) combinatorial auction, the question of equilibrium bidding strategies remains an open problem. We propose a heuristic for finding such strategies and also present feasible strategies. And finally, is a first-price combinatorial auction worth pursuing compared to the simpler simultaneous (single-item) auction? We prove, through a model capturing many fundamental properties of multiple items scenarios with synergies, that the first-price combinatorial auction produces higher revenue than simultaneous single-item auctions. We provide bounds on revenue, given a significantly more general model, in contrast to previous work.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar o mercado de concessões de prestação do serviço de transmissão de energia elétrica do Brasil. Essa concessão dura trinta anos e, se for considerado que houve muitos interessados em ganhar as concessões, para a maioria dos leilões realizados até 2005 o resultado dos leilões podem ser considerados um grande sucesso. Esses leilões são recentes, se iniciaram em 1999. Antes disso o setor passava por dificuldades de investimento. Após reformulação de algumas leis, o setor elétrico deixou de ser dependente de financiamentos governamentais. O setor privado começou a investir de forma controlada nesses projetos de grande porte e a obrigação do governo passou a ser o de fiscalizar e formular as leis do setor. Como houve muitos interessados em prestar o serviço público, os leilões foram a forma escolhida para decidir qual era a empresa mais eficiente. Os leilões são descendentes de primeiro preço em dois estágios em que o primeiro estágio é secreto em envelope fechado. Caso a diferença entre o menor valor e os outros lances seja menor do que 5%, o leilão passa para o segundo estágio que ocorre em viva-voz. Como o objeto leiloado é uma concessão, o valor que os participantes tem de decidir não é o preço a pagar, mas sim o valor da receita máxima que a concessionária aceitará receber para prestar o serviço. Uma das características da transmissão que determinou o tipo de regulação a ser utilizado foi o fato da transmissão de energia elétrica ser um monopólio natural, por isso o valor cobrado dos usuários deve ser controlado. O valor desse único lance contém as expectativas dos agentes sobre o valor dos custos estimados para prestar o serviço, contém também as expectativas de lucro possível, da probabilidade de vitória do leilão dada a concorrência etc. A análise deste trabalho se concentra nos leilões realizados no período de 1999 até 2005 em que ocorreram dez leilões com várias linhas sendo leiloadas em cada leilão. Para determinar o que tornou esse mercado tão interessante para as empresas privadas, foram consideradas as características de cada empresa. A característica mais importante é a interdependência. Essa interdependência permite custos menores quanto mais projetos de transmissão a empresa possui, por isso os resultados do leilão podem ser determinados por essa característica especial. Além dessa variável, foram consideradas a concorrência, a competitividade entre os participantes, o tipo de empresa, ou seja, em que setor a empresa possui especialidade na realização de projetos e o fato dos leilões serem seqüenciais. / This work analised the concession market of electricity transmission lines in Brazil. This market was recently created by a major restructuring in the regulation laws. The reason for this change was the investment crisis that the sector was going through before 1999. Those concessions are decided by an auction and lasts for thirty years. It has been considered a major success, due to the interest of many companies in acquiring this permits. The government no longer invested on it but instead decided de the laws to control the sector. One of the key changes in the diferent aspect of the regulation the participation of the private sector. Investments were no longer dependent on government for financial suport. This alteration made the market more competitive, eficient and lucrative. The auctions are classified as a descending first-price with two stages. The first stage is made with a sealed bid and in case the diference of the lowest bid and the other bids are less than 5%, the auction goes to the second stage with a oral auction. The object auctioned is a permit to provide a public service for a period o time, so this is the reason the auction is descending one. The bids made by the participants is the value of a maximum annual income permited by the regulator. The reason for this maximum is a result of the fact that this public service is a natural monopoly. It prevents the concessionare to take advantage over it´s clients by charging a high fee when they don´t have a choice of another provider of this service. When the participants of the auctions choose the value of the bid, this only bid contains all of their expectations of costs, profits, the probability of winning the auction when considering the competition etc. This work uses the data of all the auctions of transmission lines that happened between 1999 and 2005. in this period ocorred ten auctions, with many lines auctioned in each one. In order to determine what made this market so interesting for private companies some caracteristics of those companies were considered. The results of this study finds that the most important caracteristic is interdependencies. It allows lower costs the many concessions the company owns. This result is so powerful that sometimes it may determine the winner of the auction. Other variables analised were the competitiveness of this sequential auctions, the competitiveness of the participants, the kind of work the company is specialized in, as a real option when deciding what kind of company to participate, for exemple, in a joint venture, and the benefits of this decision.

Submitted by Marcos Paulo de Jesus (mpj@gvmail.br) on 2018-07-11T20:46:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Jesus - Um estudo de caso entre 3 tipos de leilão reverso sob a perspectiva de uma organização de compras.pdf: 883117 bytes, checksum: 78501c0ba874ec5e74051216e041b45a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Mayara Costa de Sousa (mayara.sousa@fgv.br) on 2018-07-13T22:22:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Jesus - Um estudo de caso entre 3 tipos de leilão reverso sob a perspectiva de uma organização de compras.pdf: 883117 bytes, checksum: 78501c0ba874ec5e74051216e041b45a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-07-16T13:29:20Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Jesus - Um estudo de caso entre 3 tipos de leilão reverso sob a perspectiva de uma organização de compras.pdf: 883117 bytes, checksum: 78501c0ba874ec5e74051216e041b45a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-16T13:29:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jesus - Um estudo de caso entre 3 tipos de leilão reverso sob a perspectiva de uma organização de compras.pdf: 883117 bytes, checksum: 78501c0ba874ec5e74051216e041b45a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-06-11 / Essa dissertação é um estudo de caso experimental em laboratório com três tipos de leilão reverso, visando aplicar as lições aprendidas no experimento a um caso real. Como há diversos tipos de leilão disponíveis, selecionar a modalidade mais indicada para um processo de compras torna-se um problema relevante para que uma empresa compradora consiga o melhor resultado do ponto de vista de redução de custo e continuidade do negócio. Fundamentado nisso, o objetivo dessa dissertação é identificar qual a modalidade de leilão pode trazer o melhor resultado do ponto de vista da empresa que está realizando a compra. Dessa forma, foi selecionado um item específico a ser comprado pela empresa, nesse caso um serviço de transporte de carga excedentes, e solicitado a fornecedores selecionados que enviassem propostas de fornecimento com o objetivo de atender à solicitação de cotação (RFQ, ou request for quotation) e, baseado nessas propostas, foi elaborada uma série de simulações em laboratório de três tipos de leilão: leilão reverso inglês, leilão reverso japonês e leilão de primeiro preço em envelope fechado. Após a execução desse experimento, foi selecionada a modalidade de leilão que gerou os melhores resultados esperados pela companhia, nesse caso o menor lance entre os participantes, e aplicada em um caso real, cujo resultado foi reportado nesse trabalho para enriquecer a aplicabilidade dessa dissertação. Com base nesses resultados foi possível comparar o efeito de redução de custos entre esses três tipos de leilão para então aplicá-los em situações futuras. / This dissertation is an experimental case study with three different types of reverse auction in a laboratory aiming to apply the lessons learned in the simulations to a real case. As there are several auctions types available in the software used by companies, selecting the most suitable type for a specific procurement process becomes a relevant problem for a company aiming to get the best result regarding cost reduction and business continuity. Based on that, the goal of this dissertation is to identify which type of auction may lead to the best result from the perspective of the buyer. Thus, it was selected one specific item to be purchased by the company, in this case heavy lift transportation services and it was asked to some suppliers to submit proposals to meet the request for quotation (RFQ). Based on these proposals, it was designed a series of auctions simulations in a laboratory of three types of auctions (reverse English auction, reverse Japanese auction and first price sealed envelope auction). After the performance of these simulations in a laboratory, the type of auction that generated the best results expected by the company, in this case the one with the lowest winning bid from bidders, was selected, applied in a real case situation and the result was reported to enrich the application of this dissertation. Based on these results it is possible to infer the cost reduction effect of these three types of auction and apply it further in the procurement processes.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar o mercado de concessões de prestação do serviço de transmissão de energia elétrica do Brasil. Essa concessão dura trinta anos e, se for considerado que houve muitos interessados em ganhar as concessões, para a maioria dos leilões realizados até 2005 o resultado dos leilões podem ser considerados um grande sucesso. Esses leilões são recentes, se iniciaram em 1999. Antes disso o setor passava por dificuldades de investimento. Após reformulação de algumas leis, o setor elétrico deixou de ser dependente de financiamentos governamentais. O setor privado começou a investir de forma controlada nesses projetos de grande porte e a obrigação do governo passou a ser o de fiscalizar e formular as leis do setor. Como houve muitos interessados em prestar o serviço público, os leilões foram a forma escolhida para decidir qual era a empresa mais eficiente. Os leilões são descendentes de primeiro preço em dois estágios em que o primeiro estágio é secreto em envelope fechado. Caso a diferença entre o menor valor e os outros lances seja menor do que 5%, o leilão passa para o segundo estágio que ocorre em viva-voz. Como o objeto leiloado é uma concessão, o valor que os participantes tem de decidir não é o preço a pagar, mas sim o valor da receita máxima que a concessionária aceitará receber para prestar o serviço. Uma das características da transmissão que determinou o tipo de regulação a ser utilizado foi o fato da transmissão de energia elétrica ser um monopólio natural, por isso o valor cobrado dos usuários deve ser controlado. O valor desse único lance contém as expectativas dos agentes sobre o valor dos custos estimados para prestar o serviço, contém também as expectativas de lucro possível, da probabilidade de vitória do leilão dada a concorrência etc. A análise deste trabalho se concentra nos leilões realizados no período de 1999 até 2005 em que ocorreram dez leilões com várias linhas sendo leiloadas em cada leilão. Para determinar o que tornou esse mercado tão interessante para as empresas privadas, foram consideradas as características de cada empresa. A característica mais importante é a interdependência. Essa interdependência permite custos menores quanto mais projetos de transmissão a empresa possui, por isso os resultados do leilão podem ser determinados por essa característica especial. Além dessa variável, foram consideradas a concorrência, a competitividade entre os participantes, o tipo de empresa, ou seja, em que setor a empresa possui especialidade na realização de projetos e o fato dos leilões serem seqüenciais. / This work analised the concession market of electricity transmission lines in Brazil. This market was recently created by a major restructuring in the regulation laws. The reason for this change was the investment crisis that the sector was going through before 1999. Those concessions are decided by an auction and lasts for thirty years. It has been considered a major success, due to the interest of many companies in acquiring this permits. The government no longer invested on it but instead decided de the laws to control the sector. One of the key changes in the diferent aspect of the regulation the participation of the private sector. Investments were no longer dependent on government for financial suport. This alteration made the market more competitive, eficient and lucrative. The auctions are classified as a descending first-price with two stages. The first stage is made with a sealed bid and in case the diference of the lowest bid and the other bids are less than 5%, the auction goes to the second stage with a oral auction. The object auctioned is a permit to provide a public service for a period o time, so this is the reason the auction is descending one. The bids made by the participants is the value of a maximum annual income permited by the regulator. The reason for this maximum is a result of the fact that this public service is a natural monopoly. It prevents the concessionare to take advantage over it´s clients by charging a high fee when they don´t have a choice of another provider of this service. When the participants of the auctions choose the value of the bid, this only bid contains all of their expectations of costs, profits, the probability of winning the auction when considering the competition etc. This work uses the data of all the auctions of transmission lines that happened between 1999 and 2005. in this period ocorred ten auctions, with many lines auctioned in each one. In order to determine what made this market so interesting for private companies some caracteristics of those companies were considered. The results of this study finds that the most important caracteristic is interdependencies. It allows lower costs the many concessions the company owns. This result is so powerful that sometimes it may determine the winner of the auction. Other variables analised were the competitiveness of this sequential auctions, the competitiveness of the participants, the kind of work the company is specialized in, as a real option when deciding what kind of company to participate, for exemple, in a joint venture, and the benefits of this decision.

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