BID Brown Bag Seminar: Efficiency Measurement via Revealed Thresholds, Without Knowing Valuations
Research Cluster
Speaker: | Ron Harstad , University of Missouri |
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Date: | Tuesday 21 February 2017 |
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Time: | 12.30 - 13.30 |
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Location: | Marchant Syndicate Room A, Building One |
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Further details
Leverhulme Trust Fellow Seminar:
Laboratory experiments employing an induced-values methodology often report on allocative efficiencies observed. That methodology requires experimenters know subjects’ motivations precisely, questionable in labs, impossible in field experiments. Allocative efficiency implies a hypothetical costless aftermarket would be inactive. An allocation mechanism’s outcome is defined to be behaviorally efficient if an appropriate aftermarket is actually appended to the mechanism and measures at most a negligible size of remaining mutually beneficial gains. Methodological requirements for an appropriate aftermarket are specified. A first demonstration observes more frequent and ex-ante larger behavioral inefficiencies in second- than in first-price auctions. A simple field demonstration indicates when a public-good increase can be observed to cover marginal cost to subjects’ mutual benefit, without knowing valuations. A wide variety of empirical economic-policy studies can utilize this methodology to observe comparative evidence of alternative policies’ allocative-efficiency shortfalls.