Expected revenue in first bid auction.

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We find expected revenue in first bid auction by following method.

let us say $V_1$ and $V_2$ denotes maximum amount that player 1 and player 2 willing to pay.

$V_1,V_2 \in [0,1]$

In case when we have only 2 players.

Nash equilibrium is $(\frac{V_1}{2},\frac{V_2}{2})$.

Expected revenue = $P(V_1>V_2)\frac{V_1}{2} + P(V_2>V_1) \frac{V_2}{2}$

we replace $V_1$ by $\frac{1+V_2}{2}$ (mean in range $V_2$ to 1).

Now Expected revenue = $\frac{V_2^{2}}{2} +(1-V_2)\frac{1+V_2}{4}$ = $\frac{1+V_2^{2}}{4}$

Now by integrating from 0 to 1 we get $\frac{1}{3}$ answer.

I did not Understand why we take mean.

Can anyone please explain.

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Your formula is not quite correct. The expected revenue for the auctioneer is (using the fact that valuations are independently drawn)

$$ \int_{v_1 \geq v_2} \frac{v_1}{2} + \int_{v_2 > v_1} \frac{v_2}{2} = \int_0^1 \int_0^{v_1}\frac{v_1}{2} dv_2 dv_1 + \int_0^1 \int_0^{v_2}\frac{v_2}{2} dv_1 dv_2 = \frac{1}{3}. $$