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Handbook > Industrial Organization > Market Institutions > Uniform Price Auction Printer Friendly

Uniform Price Auction

Unlike a discriminative auction in uniform price environment all units are traded at an uniform market clearing price.

Uniform Price Auctions

A competitive price auction is an example of an uniform price auction in which all N prizes are sold at the market-clearing price determined by the highest rejected bid. A call market or clearinghouse auction is another uniform-price auction. However in this case both buyers and sellers submit price bids, offers and quantities to trade or buy.

The Cournot game can be looked upon as a variant of a clearinghouse auction. In a cournot game the sellers select output quantities simultaneously, which determine the market price at which all units are sold.

One-sided sequential auctions

This is a special case of a Walrasian auction with a single seller selling a single unit. The auctioneer starts with a relatively high price and the as the price is lowered, the first buyer who indicates a willingness to purchase stops the process. When the lowering is done mechanically-e.g., with a pointer that falls over a price scale on a "clock" visible to all bidders, it's known as a Dutch Auction. If instead, the Walrasian auctioneer starts with a low price for a single unit, and raises price until only one interested bidder remains it is called an English Auction.

Some other common forms of sequential auctions are the one-sided offer auction and a one-sided bid auction. The former is an institution in which sellers can make price offers at any time, and buyers are able to accept any offer, but not to make counter offers. The airlines post fare in a similar way sequentially in real time through a computerised reservation system and the travel agents and their customers make purchases at the best current rates.

The latter institution is one in which the buyers can make bids, but sellers can only indicate that a bid is accepted.

 
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