Quantifying Bargaining Power Under Incomplete Information: A Supply-Side Analysis of the Used-Car Industry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Larsen ◽  
Anthony Lee Zhang
Author(s):  
Bradley J Larsen

Abstract This study empirically quantifies the efficiency of a real-world bargaining game with two-sided incomplete information. Myerson and Satterthwaite (1983) and Williams (1987) derived the theoretical ex-ante efficient frontier for bilateral trade under two-sided uncertainty and demonstrated that it falls short of ex-post efficiency, but little is known about how well bargaining performs in practice. Using about 265,000 sequences of a game of alternating-offer bargaining following an ascending auction in the wholesale used-car industry, this study estimates (or bounds) distributions of buyer and seller values and evaluates where realized bargaining outcomes lie relative to efficient outcomes. Results demonstrate that the ex-ante and ex-post efficient outcomes are close to one another, but that the real bargaining falls short of both, suggesting that the bargaining is indeed inefficient but that this inefficiency is not solely due to the information constraints highlighted in Myerson and Satterthwaite (1983). Quantitatively, findings indicate that over one-half of failed negotiations are cases where gains from trade exist, leading an efficiency loss of 12–23% of the available gains from trade.


2005 ◽  
Vol 07 (04) ◽  
pp. 501-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY MATHEWS

The issue of whether or not trade can be sustained when exchange is non-simultaneous is addressed. An environment in which a buyer is exposed to the possibility that a seller will not deliver an item which has been paid for is examined. Situations of this nature often arise when consumer-to-consumer trade is negotiated via the internet. Repeated interaction between a single seller and a single buyer is modelled, assuming each has incomplete information about the type of their prospective trading partner. It is possible for an agent to be better off with less relative bargaining power. Thus, if an agent can reduce his own relative bargaining power, he may choose to do so.


1979 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth McNeil ◽  
John R. Nevin ◽  
David M. Trubek ◽  
Richard E. Miller

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Kang Jia ◽  
Qiaobin Feng ◽  
Jingchun Su

Rational expectation is known as the sixth revolution in economics. Based on a brief review of rational expectation, this paper puts forward the proposition of failure of rational expectation. The so-called failure of rational expectation means that when the market entity predicts future events, it is impossible to form a completely accurate expectation and then adjust its actions accordingly due to incomplete information and other reasons. On the contrary, due to various irrational factors, the actions of the market entities based on individual ration sometimes may be mad and loss of control, producing devastating effects on the economic system. This paper expounds the concept and formation mechanism of the failure of rational expectation, and conducts a preliminary empirical analysis on this in combination with China’s economic practice. On this basis, it proposes that rational supply management, which the government can play a role in, should be combined to correct the failure of rational expectation and realize the dynamic balance and stability of the economic system.


1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Froud ◽  
Colin Haslam ◽  
Sukhdev Johal ◽  
Karel Williams

This paper challenges the productionist chain concept of economic activity. It also provides a constructive alternative in the form of sector matrix analysis which considers the two non-corresponding webs of demand and supply side relations around the production, distribution and use of goods and services. Sector matrix analysis constructs the demand side in terms of the complementary and competing demands made by end users, and the supply side in terms of the corporate consolidation of surplus from different activities inside and outside a specific demand matrix. The scope and potential for this new kind of analysis is illustrated with material on motoring and the article uses a range of evidence, including car assembler accounts and United Kingdom (UK) data on household demand, to show how a motoring sector matrix can be used to pose new questions and provide different answers to old ones about the car industry.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Leman ◽  
Matthew S. Matell ◽  
Michael Brown

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