Applying auction theory to economics

Working paper

This is a preliminary draft of an Invited Symposium paper for the World Congress of the Econometric Society to be held in Seattle in August 2000. We discuss the strong connections between auction theory and standard economic theory, and argue that auction-theoretic tools and intuitions can provide useful arguments and insights in a broad range of mainstream economic settings that do not, at first sight, look like auctions. We also discuss some more obvious applications, especially to industrial organization.

Authors: Klemperer, P

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: University of Oxford
• Series: Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
• Publication date: 2000-05-01
• Paper number: 1
• Keywords: stock markets; perfect competition; auction theory; litigation; e-commerce; mechanism design; auctions; financial crashes; queues; treasury auctions; bidding; electricity; private values; brand loyalty; spectrum auctions; Bertrand; common values; war of attrition