Last-Minute Bidding in Sequential Auctions with Unobserved, Stochastic Entry." Working Paper (original) (raw)

Last-Minute Bidding in Sequential Auctions with Unobserved, Stochastic Entry." Working Paper

Using a dataset of calculator auctions on eBay, we first show that last-minute bidding is not merely the result of bidders ’ going to the next-to-close auction. Instead, bidding is concentrated at the end of the period in which the auction is the next to close, suggesting the existence of strategic last-minute bidding. Then, we model repeated, ascending price auctions for homogeneous goods with unobserved, stochas-tic entry. We show that the dynamic game has a pure-strategy symmetric equilibrium in which entrants always reveal themselves by bidding in the auction in which they arrive, and bidding occurs at the last minute.