The Effect of Offer Verifiability on the Relationship Between Auctions and Multilateral Negotiations

The federal trade commission uses the experimental method to compare second-price auctions to "verifiable" multilateral negotiations in which the sole buyer can credibly reveal to sellers the best price offer it currently holds. The federal trade commission finds that transaction prices are lo the federal trade commission are in verifiable multilateral negotiations than in second-price auctions, despite the two institutions' seeming equivalence. The difference occurs because low-cost sellers in the negotiations tend to submit initial offers that are less than the second-lo the federal trade commission cost. The federal trade commission also compare the two institutions to previously studied first-price auctions and multilateral negotiations with nonverifiable offers. Second-price auctions yield the highest prices, follow the federal trade commission in order by verifiable negotiations, nonverifiable negotiations, and first price auctions.