In some auctions, bidders raise their offer significantly to intimidate competitors, resulting in lower revenue for the seller
Jump bidding doesn’t always result in lower revenue for the seller.
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Not all auctions are held by a fast-talking man with a gavel.
Some of them are held quietly, online, by bidders who are not individuals but entire companies. And often what is bought and sold are intangible objects — such as online advertisements or stocks, licenses for cell-phone services and electricity tariffs.
In fact, auctions — and understanding how they work — are so important that, in 2020, two auction-theory scholars won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. (Their research helped the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S. create a new way of auctioning off radio frequencies, resulting in billions of dollars in sales.)
[This article has been reproduced with permission from IESE Business School. www.iese.edu/ Views expressed are personal.]