Discussion Paper No. 849

RESERVE PRICE
WHEN BIDDERS ARE ASYMMETRIC

Hikmet Gunay
Xin Meng
Mark Nagelberg

July 2012
Revised March 2017

The Institute of Social and Economic Research
Osaka University
6-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan

Reserve Price When Bidders are
Asymmetric.
Hikmet Günay

1

University of Manitoba, Department of Economics, Winnipeg, Canadae-mail: gunay@cc.umanitoba.ca

Xin Meng
Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Center for Industrial and Business Organizatione-mail: mengxin@swufe.edu.cn

Mark Nagelberg
PRA Inc. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canadae-mail: nagelbergmark@gmail.com

Abstract
We analyze the optimal reserve price in a second price auction when there are 𝑁 types ofbidders whose valuations are drawn from different distribution functions. The seller cannot
determine the specific “distribution type” of each bidder. In this paper, we give sufficientconditions for the uniqueness of the optimal reserve price. Then, we give sufficient conditions
that ensure the seller will not use a reserve price; hence, the auction will be efficient.
Key words: Auction, Reserve (Reservation) Price, Asymmetric Bidders.
JEL classification: D44.

1. Introduction
E-bay auctions have been very popular among the general public. With the
diffusion of the internet, the bidders of E-bay auctions come from many different
1This paper is published in METU Studies in Development under the title “Uniquness of the reserve pricewith asymmetric bidders.” We thank Krishnendu G. Dastidar, René Kirkegaard, Ryo Ogawa, Maxwell
Pak, and anonymous referees for helpful discussions and suggestions. Part of this research has been
done while H. Gunay was visiting Osaka University-ISER; their hospitality is much appreciated. H.
Gunay and X. Meng acknowledge the financial support of Social Sciences and Humanities ResearchCouncil (SSHRC) and the University of Manitoba. X.Meng also acknowledges the financial support
from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC) and Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities.

2

Hikmet Günay - Xin Meng - Mark Nagelberg

parts of the world and may have widely varying preferences; hence, expecting them
to be symmetric bidders may be a strong assumption. In this paper, we relax thiscommonly-used assumption (e.g., Maskin and Laffont, 1980; Riley and Samuelson,
1981; Englebrecht-Wiggans, 1987; McAfee and McMillan, 1987; Levin and Smith,
1996; McAfee and Vincent, 1997) by allowing the independent private valuations
to be drawn from different distribution functions. We then analyze how this willaffect the optimal reserve prices.
In our model, there is one good that is auctioned off using a second priceauction. The seller knows that there are N types of bidders whose valuations are
drawn from different distribution functions. We will use the term “distribution type"to denote these different distribution functions. Specifically, we say that two agents
have the same distribution type if their valuations are drawn from the same
distribution function. The seller cannot determine the specific distribution type ofeach bidder,2 or equivalently we assume that the seller has to use a unique reserve
price. We give conditions that determine whether or not the seller will use a reserve
price. If a reserve price is used, we analyze its properties for cases where thebidders’ valuations are drawn from common supports, and find a sufficientcondition for its uniqueness. Our assumptions differ from Myerson (1981) who
studies the revenue maximizing mechanism under the assumption that seller candetermine the distribution types. As a result, he finds a “discriminatory reserve
price”; i.e., an optimal reserve price for each type. Our motivation comes from thefact that in practice, almost all auctions have a single reserve price (or no reserve
price at all). We show that the optimal reserve price is determined when bidders’weighted average of virtual valuations is equal to the seller’s valuation. In Myerson(1981), the optimal reserve price is found by equating the virtual valuation of eachbidder to the seller’s valuation; hence, there is a different reserve price for each
distribution type of bidders.
Our main contribution is giving sufficient conditions for the uniqueness of the
optimal reserve price. We prove this by showing that the revenue function is quasiconcave when there are bidders that can be ranked via hazard rate and reverse
hazard rate dominance. Alternatively, one can assume that the bidders can be ranked
via likelihood ratio dominance which implies both hazard rate and reverse hazard
rate dominance.
Our second contribution, we believe, has real-world implications since weobserve that the reserve price is not always used (e.g. Englmaier and Schmöller,2010) in auctions. We show when the seller will use (effective) reserve prices, andwhen she will not. By the effective reserve price, we mean a reserve price strictly
2This is an assumption commonly used in industrial organization. Firms are aware of the distribution oftypes across consumers but they cannot price discriminate because they do not know which specificconsumers have each given type.

3

greater than the lower bound of buyer’s valuations. We show that when the virtual
valuation of each bidder at the lower bound of the support is greater than the seller’svaluation and Myerson’s regularity condition holds, then the seller will not use aneffective reserve price. When we find conditions that the seller will use an effective
reserve price, we do not need to assume Myerson’s regularity condition. While there
are other papers in the literature that find no effective reserve price (e.g.
Englebrecht-Wiggans, 1987; McAfee and McMillan, 1987), they all assume thatsymmetric bidders have to pay some participation (or information) cost/fee before
entering the auction or non quasi linear utility functions (Dastidar, 2015). In ourmodel, asymmetric bidders do not have a cost of participation nor do they buy
information.
There are a few papers other than Myerson (1981) in the literature that assume
asymmetric bidders (e.g., Plum, 1992; Lebrun, 1999; Maskin and Riley, 2000).
None of these papers analyzes the optimal reserve price. Also, our paper does nothave information externalities, nor it uses mechanism design approaches unlike
Kucuksenel (2013).

2. Asymmetric distributions with common support
Assume that there are 𝑁 ≥ 2 risk neutral bidders, and one risk-neutral seller
with one object. Bidders’ valuations are independently distributed with cumulative
distribution functions 𝐹𝑖 , 𝑖 =1,2,…, 𝑁with support [𝑣, 𝑣] (with 𝑣 ≥ 0). All
distribution and density functions are continuously differentiable and density
functions 𝑓𝑖 are positive everywhere.3 The distributions are common knowledge but
the valuations are private information. The seller cannot determine the specificdistribution type for each bidder.4 We assume that we have at least one 𝑖 such that𝐹𝑖 ≠ 𝐹𝑗 ; hence, we have asymmetric bidders. The value of the object to the seller
is 𝑥0 < 𝑣. If the inequality does not hold, the seller will never sell the object.
We will calculate the optimal reserve price that will be set by the seller in asecond-price auction. It is well-known that the bidders bid truthfully in a second
price auction even when they know the existence of asymmetric bidders (e.g. see
Krishna, 2009). First, we have to calculate the seller’s revenue function, 𝐸Π, whenfacing asymmetric bidders. For this, we will fix a bidder 𝑖, and calculate the first(i.e., highest) order statistic of the remaining bidders; 𝐻𝑖 (𝑥) = ∏𝑗≠𝑖 𝐹𝑗 (𝑥). We let

34This implies continuous differentiability of the expected revenue function.
This is analogous to a firm facing two or more different types that it cannot distinguish. One can also
assume that the seller can distinguish the types but is required to use a unique reserve price by law. For
example, a government agency cannot treat bidders differently and use different reserve prices fordifferent bidders.

4

Hikmet Günay - Xin Meng - Mark Nagelbergℎ𝑖 denote the corresponding density function. The expected payoff function is given
by:
𝑁

𝑁

𝑣

𝑥𝑖

𝐸Π = 𝑥0 ∏ 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) + ∑ [(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟))𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑟 + ∫ (∫ 𝑦 ℎ𝑖 (𝑦)𝑑𝑦) 𝑓𝑖 (𝑥𝑖 )𝑑𝑥𝑖 ]
𝑖

𝑟

𝑖

(1)

𝑟

The first term with 𝑥0 shows that the case where all bidders bid below thereserve price 𝑟. The first term in the brackets of summation shows the case where agiven bidder 𝑖 wins the auction and all other bidders bid below the reserve price 𝑟,
or equivalently, the other bidders do not enter the auction. The second term is the
expected payment of bidder i given that he wins the auction, and at least one otherbidder bids above 𝑟. Finally, to get the expected revenue function, we have to sum
over all 𝑁 bidders.
By changing the order of integration, we can write this as:
𝑁𝑁𝑣

𝐸Π = 𝑥0 ∏ 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) + ∑ [(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟))𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑟 + ∫ 𝑦ℎ𝑖 (𝑦)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑦))𝑑𝑦 ]
𝑖

𝑟

𝑖

(2)

By taking the derivative of this function with respect to r, we have thefollowing equation:
𝑁

𝑁

𝑁

𝐸Π ′ = 𝑥0 ∑ 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟)𝐻𝑖 (𝑟) + ∑ 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)𝑟) = ∑ 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ))𝑖𝑖𝑖

1−𝐹(𝑥)

Using Myerson’s virtual valuation which is 𝐽𝑖 (𝑥) = 𝑥 − 𝑓 (𝑥)𝑖in theequation, we get:𝐸Π ′ = −[∑𝑁𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑥0 )](3)

So we find an equation that the optimal reserve price must satisfy. Our firstlemma summarizes this result.
Lemma 1 Any interior optimal reserve price must satisfy the implicit equation:𝑁∑𝑁
𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) = −(∑𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑥0 )) = 0(4)

The first order condition shows that bidders’ weighted average of virtual
valuations is 𝑥0 at the optimal reserve price, since one can re-write the first order∑𝑁 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑟)−𝑥0 )condition as 𝑖∑𝑁
𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)=0⇒∑𝑁
𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑟))∑𝑁𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)= 𝑥0 . In Myerson (1981),

when bidders are asymmetric but their distributions are known, a different reserve
price is determined for each bidder by setting their virtual valuation equal to the5seller’s valuation. As we discussed before, even if the seller knew the distribution
type of each bidder, setting a different reserve price for different bidders is notpractical. For example, government agencies cannot set different reserve price fordifferent bidders since this may be labelled as discrimination against some bidders.
Now, we will find conditions under which the seller will set an effective
reserve price 𝑟 > 𝑣 , and when he will not. In the theorem below, note that we do
not assume regularity condition in part a; i.e, we do not assume that 𝐽𝑖 functions are
increasing.
𝐻 (𝑥)𝑓 (𝑥)𝑖
Proposition 2 Let 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣) = 𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑥↓𝑣 ∑𝑁 𝑖𝐻 (𝑥)𝑓exist.5
(𝑥)
𝑖

𝑖

𝑖

a) If ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) < 0 then 𝑟 > 𝑣.
b) Assume 𝐽𝑖 is increasing for each 𝑖. If ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) ≥ 0 then there
will be no effective reserve price.
Proof Part a) Suppose 𝑚 = ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) < 0. Note that by theproperties of the limit function and 𝐽 is a continuous function (𝑓 and 𝐹 arecontinuous and 𝑓 is positive everywhere) we have𝑁𝑚 = ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑥↓𝑣 𝐽𝑖 (𝑥) − 𝑥0 ) = ∑𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) < 0

Then, by definition of the limit, for all 𝜀 > 0, there exists δ > 0 such that for∑𝑁 𝐻 (𝑥)𝑓 (𝑥)all 𝑥 ∈ (𝑣 , 𝑣 + 𝛿 ), 𝑚 − 𝜀 < ∑𝑖𝑁 𝐻𝑖(𝑥)𝑓𝑖(𝑥) (𝐽𝑖 (x) − 𝑥0 ) < 𝑚 + 𝜀. Since 𝑚 < 0, we𝑖𝑖𝑖

can pick 𝜀 small enough so that ∑𝑁
𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑥)𝑓𝑖 (𝑥)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑥) − 𝑥0 ) < 0, and thus
(𝑥)𝑓
(𝑥)(𝐽
(𝑥)
)
− ∑𝑁
𝐻
−
𝑥
>
0
for
all
𝑥 ∈ (𝑣 , 𝑣 + 𝛿 ). But this last expression
𝑖
𝑖
𝑖
0
𝑖
is the derivative of the revenue function, so a seller will strictly increase revenues
by setting 𝑟 > 𝑣.
Part b) Assume that 𝐽𝑖 is increasing for each 𝑖 and ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) > 0
and an effective reserve price 𝑟 > 𝑣 exists. By Lemma 1, this 𝑟 must satisfy∑𝑁
But then for all 𝑥 ∈ (𝑣 , 𝑟 ) we have𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑥0 ) = 0.
𝑁
∑𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑥)𝑓𝑖 (𝑥)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑥) − 𝑥0 ) < 0 by the fact that 𝐽𝑖 are increasing, and𝐻(. )and 𝑓(. )are positive. But then the assumption ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) > 0
cannot hold. This is a contradiction; hence, no effective reserve price exists.
Now suppose ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) = 0 and an effective reserve price 𝑟 > 𝑣
exists. Again, by Lemma 1, this r must satisfy∑𝑁
𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑥0 ) = 0. But
(𝑟)𝑓
(𝑟)(𝐽
(𝑟)
)
we have ∑𝑁
𝐻
−
𝑥
>
0
by
the
fact that ∑𝑁
𝑖
𝑖
𝑖
0
𝑖
𝑖 𝑡𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 ) =5

We know that this condition exists for a large class of distributions given our examples. Even if it does
not exist, our corollary below still gives the same result -despite with stronger conditions-.

6

Hikmet Günay - Xin Meng - Mark Nagelberg

0, 𝐽𝑖 are increasing, and 𝐻(. )and 𝑓(. )are positive. Again, this is a contradiction;
hence, no effective reserve price exists.
Before discussing the implications of the proposition, we give a corollaryproviding easier sufficient conditions to check.
Corollary 3 a) If 𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) < 𝑥0 for each 𝑖 then 𝑟 > 𝑣.
b) Assume that 𝐽𝑖 is increasing and 𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) > 𝑥0 for each 𝑖 then 𝑟 = 𝑣. That is,effectively, there is no reserve price.
Proof Part a) If the seller values the object at 𝑥0 , the derivative of the expected
revenue function becomes:
𝑁𝑥0 ∑𝑁𝑖 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)𝐻𝑖 (𝑟) + ∑𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)𝑟)=𝑁∑𝑁
𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) = −[∑𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑥)𝑓𝑖 (𝑥)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑥) − 𝑥0 )] (5)By the assumption 𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) < 𝑥0 and continuity of revenue function and the factthat derivative of the revenue function is zero exactly at 𝑣, we can find a small 𝜀 >0, −[∑𝑁𝑖 (𝐽𝑖 (𝑣 + 𝜀) − 𝑥0 )𝑓𝑖 (𝑣 + 𝜀) 𝐻𝑖 (𝑣 + 𝜀)]>0 without making any assumption
on the curvature of 𝐽𝑖 . But then, by setting the reserve price slightly more than 𝑣 +𝜀 increases revenue.
Part b) The first order derivative of expected revenue function,−[∑𝑁
𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑣)𝑓𝑖 (𝑣)(𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) − 𝑥0 )], is zero. For any 𝑟 > 𝑣 in the support, the first orderderivative is negative since 𝐽(. )is increasing and 𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) > 𝑥0 , and 𝐻 and 𝑓 arepositive. Since increasing the reserve price decreases the revenue, the optimalreserve price should be set at 𝑟 = 𝑣 .6 This completes the proof.
When will the seller not use the reserve price? 𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) > 𝑥0 , implies that
1 < 𝑓𝑖 (𝑣)(𝑣 − 𝑥0 ) which in turn implies that 𝑣 > 𝑥0 . Hence, a necessary condition
not to use reserve price is 𝑣 > 𝑥0 . Also, 𝑓𝑖 (𝑣) should be big enough. This means,
there has to be an enough mass of consumers with valuations close to 𝑣. Ourcontribution is to explicitly state the sufficient conditions for not using an effective
reserve price.
We believe that there are certain cases in which 𝑥0 can be negative. For
example, the seller may face a storage cost for keeping the object or a firm that ismaking a loss under the current management may have negative values to the seller.
In these cases, the seller may not use the reserve price (or equivalently set thereserve price equal to 𝑣).
Example (No reserve price): Assume two bidders. Their valuation is drawn
from the support [4,5]. The first one has a uniform density function 𝑓1 = 1. The
6

The seller may set any reserve price less than or equal to 𝑣 but this is effectively using no reserve price.

7

second one has a density function 𝑓2 = −3.5 + 𝑥. The seller values the object at
𝑥0 = 1. Then, the seller would not set an effective reserve price.
There are other papers in the literature that show the seller may use zeroreserve price (e.g. Englebrecht-Wiggans (1987), McAfee and McMillan (1987)
assume costly participation in terms of paying fee or buying information; Dastidar(2015) assume a model with non-quasi linear utility functions). Unlike all these
papers, we find conditions when the seller uses (or does not use) the reserve pricewhen she is dealing with asymmetric bidders. If the reserve price is not used, this
implies that the auction is efficient. When using a reserve price is not optimal in asecond price auction, we do not have to be concerned with the assumption ofwhether the seller can commit not to sell the object in a second auction.7
Now, we will find a sufficient condition for the uniqueness of the reserve
price. We will introduce N distribution types that we will order from “strongest” to“weakest” in the sense of reverse hazard rate and hazard rate dominance. Of course,
one could order them in the sense of likelihood ratio dominance, and this would
imply both reverse hazard rate, hazard rate and first order stochastic dominance(Krishna, 2009:60,289). Specifically, we assume that 𝐹1⁄𝑓1 < 𝐹2 ⁄𝑓2 < ⋯ <𝐹𝑁 ⁄𝑓𝑁 in the interior of the support.8 In addition, we assume 𝑓𝑖 nondecreasing which
in turn implies that 𝐽𝑖 are increasing. The proof of the proposition shows that thederivative of the revenue function is single-crossing zero from above -for theinterior values-. This implies that the revenue function is quasi-concave, and hence,
the reserve price is unique.
Proposition 4 Suppose that all 𝑓𝑖 are non-decreasing and 𝐽𝑖 (𝑣) < 𝑥0 for each𝑖 (i.e., r> 𝑣). There are N types of bidders ranked from strongest to weakest in the
1−𝐹 (𝑥)1−𝐹2 (𝑥)1𝑓2 (𝑥)

1sense of both hazard rate dominance, 𝑓 (𝑥)>>⋯>1−𝐹𝑁 (𝑥)𝑓𝑁 (𝑥)

and reverse

hazard rate dominance, 𝐹1 (𝑥)⁄𝑓1 (𝑥) < 𝐹2 (𝑥)⁄𝑓2 (𝑥) < ⋯ < 𝐹𝑁 (𝑥)⁄𝑓𝑁 (𝑥) for𝑥 ∈ (𝑣, 𝑣) and 𝑀𝑖 bidders for each type. Then, there is a unique reserve price 𝑟that maximizes revenue which can be calculated from equation 2.
Proof of Proposition 4: From equation 2 in Lemma 1, the optimal reserve∑𝑁
price satisfies:
𝑖=1 𝑀𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) = 0.

7

8With the exception of McAfee and Vincent (1997) who assume the seller will re-auction the object if
it is not sold, the literature generally assumes that the seller will make this “not re-auction" commitment
credibly (e.g. Myerson, 1981).
Note that the way we write the inequalities are such that 𝐹𝑖 dominates 𝐹𝑗 for 𝑖 < 𝑗 in terms of the reverse
hazard rate. Also note that 𝐹𝑖 (𝑣) = 0 and hence the whole term will be equal to zero for all 𝑖, so wedefine inequalities only in the interior of the support.

8

Hikmet Günay - Xin Meng - Mark Nagelberg

First note that hazard rate dominance (i.e. 𝜆𝑖 (𝑟) = (𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)⁄(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟)) <𝜆𝑗 (𝑟)) implies first order stochastic dominance (i.e., 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) < 𝐹𝑗 (𝑟)) in the interiorof the support. This implies that (1 − 𝜆𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ))(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟)) > (1 −𝜆𝑗 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) (1 − 𝐹𝑗 (𝑟)) ⇔ (1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) > (1 − 𝐹𝑗 (𝑟) −𝑓𝑗 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) for 𝑖 < 𝑗. Therefore, there cannot be a unique 𝑟 that makes 1 −𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ) = 0 for all 𝑖.
It is clearly not the case that all terms in the first order condition sum,𝑁∑𝑖=1 𝑀𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )), are positive or negative. So for some𝑗 ∈ {2, … , 𝑁 − 1}, 1 − 𝐹𝑘 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑘 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ) > 0 for all 1 ≤ 𝑘 ≤ 𝑗 − 1 and 1 −𝐹𝑘 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑘 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ) < 0 for 𝑗 ≤ 𝑘 ≤ 𝑁. From now on, 𝑗 will denote that cutoff
agent.
Take the derivative of this first order equation and get:′∑𝑁
𝑖=1[𝑀𝑖 ℎ𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) + 𝑀𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(−2𝑓𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 −𝑥0 ))].

Since the density functions are nondecreasing, we have′∑𝑁
𝑖=1 𝑀𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(−2𝑓𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) < 0, so we will ignore this part ofthe sum and focus on showing that (∗) ∑𝑁
𝑖=1[𝑀𝑖 ℎ𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 −𝑥0 ))] < 0.
We solve for 1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ) from the first order condition andsubstitute this into (∗) to get:∑𝑁𝑖≠𝑗 𝑀𝑖 ℎ𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 )) +𝑀𝑗 ℎ𝑗 (𝑟)(− ∑𝑁
𝑖=2 𝑀𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ))⁄𝑀𝑗 𝐻𝑗 (𝑟))We do not have to be concerned with division by zero since our assumptions
ensure that r> 𝑣 by proposition 3. After cancelling 𝑀𝑗 in the right hand term andcombiningbothterms,
we
are
left
with:
𝑁
∑𝑖≠𝑗 𝑀𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(ℎ𝑖 (𝑟)⁄𝐻𝑖 (𝑟) − ℎ𝑗 (𝑟)⁄𝐻𝑗 (𝑟))(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ))By using ℎ𝑘 (𝑟)⁄𝐻𝑘 (𝑟) = ∑𝑙≠𝑖 𝑓𝑙 (𝑟)⁄𝐹𝑙 (𝑟), we can re-write the term above∑𝑁
as:𝑖≠𝑗 𝑀𝑖 𝐻𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑓𝑗 (𝑟)⁄𝐹𝑗 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)⁄𝐹𝑖 (𝑟))(1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ))This is less than 0: The first 𝑗 − 1 terms are less than 0 because for each 𝑖 suchthat 1 ≤ 𝑖 ≤ 𝑗 − 1, we have 𝑓𝑗 ⁄𝐹𝑗 − 𝑓𝑖 ⁄𝐹𝑖 < 0 (by reverse hazard rate assumption)and 1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ) > 0 (since 𝑗 is the cutoff agent). The 𝑗 + 1 to nthterms are less than 0 because for each 𝑖 such that 𝑗 + 1 ≤ 𝑖 ≤9𝑁, 𝑓𝑗 (𝑟)⁄𝐹𝑗 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)⁄𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) > 0 and 1 − 𝐹𝑖 (𝑟) − 𝑓𝑖 (𝑟)(𝑟 − 𝑥0 ) < 0. Therefore,
any 𝑟 that satisfies the first order condition must also satisfy the second ordercondition (concavity). This implies uniqueness of an optimal reserve price. To see
why, suppose there are two distinct values 𝑟1 and 𝑟2 that maximize expected revenue
and suppose without loss of generality that 𝑟1 < 𝑟2 . Both of these points must satisfy
the first order condition and hence the second order condition, as we have justshown. But by the differentiability (and hence, continuity) of the expected revenue
function, this would imply that there is a point 𝑟3 ∈ (𝑟1 , 𝑟2 ) such that there is alocal minimum at 𝑟3 and the first order condition is therefore satisfied at 𝑟3 .9 But
this is a contradiction because we have just shown that any point that satisfies thefirst order condition must be a local maximum. Therefore, the optimal reserve priceis unique. This completes the proof.
For example, let 𝐹𝑁 = 𝑥 be uniform distribution function on [0,1], 𝐹𝑁−1 =(𝐹𝑁 )2 = 𝑥 2 , … , 𝐹1 = (𝐹𝑁 )𝑁 = 𝑥 𝑁 . This is the power distribution widely used inasymmetric bidders literature. (see Cantillon, 2008, for example). This example
satisfies all conditions of our proposition 4; hence, the reserve price that satisfies
equation 2 is the optimal unique reserve price. More examples can be created byreplacing the uniform distribution in the example with any other distribution thathas a non-decreasing density function.

3. Conclusion
We characterized the optimal reserve price for asymmetric bidders. In ourmodel, we show that the unique reserve price is found by setting a weighted averageof bidders’ virtual valuations equal to the seller’s valuation of the object.
Second, as a novel feature of the paper, we give sufficient conditions for theuniqueness of the optimal reserve price by ordering distribution types by hazard
rate and reverse hazard rate dominance. One can order distribution types in thesense of likelihood ratio dominance, and this will suffice to have a unique optimalreserve price.
Finally, we showed when the seller will use a reserve price in an asymmetricauction (without assuming Myerson’s regularity condition) and when she will not(by assuming Myerson’s regularity condition). The conditions that make the seller
abstain from using a reserve price are sufficient to make the auction efficient, since
the object will always be sold to the bidder who values it most.

9

Since 𝑟1 and 𝑟2 satisfy the second order condition, the expected revenue function cannot be a line
between 𝑟1 and 𝑟2 .

10Hikmet Günay - Xin Meng - Mark Nagelberg

References
CANTILLON, E. (2008) “The Effect of Bidders’ Asymmetries on Expected Revenue in Auctions”,
Games and Economic Behavior, 62-1, 1-25.
DASTIDAR, K. G. (2015) “Basic Auction Theory Revisited”, International Journal of Economic
Theory, 11, 89-106.
ENGLEBRECHT-WIGGANS, R. (1987) “On Optimal Reservation Price in Auctions”, Management
Science, 33, 763-770.
ENGLEMAIER, F. AND SCHMÖLLER, A. (2010) “Determinants and Effects of Reserve Prices in
Online Auctions”, University of Munich Discussion Paper. No: 326
KRISHNA, V. (2009) Auction Theory, Academic Press.
KUCUKSENEL, S. (2013) “The Effects of Outside Options on Optimal Auction Outcomes”, METU
Studies in Development, 40-1,83-96.
LEBRUN, B. (1999) “First Price Auctions in the Asymmetric N Bidder Case”, International
Economic Review, 40-1, 125-142.
LEVIN, D. and SMITH, J.L. (1996) “Optimal Reservation Prices in Auctions”, Economic
Journal,106-438, 1271-1283.
MASKIN, E. and LAFFONT, J.J. (1980) “Optimal Reservation Price in the Vickery Auction”,
Economics Letters, 6, 309-313.
MASKIN, E. and RILEY, J. (2000) “Asymmetric Auctions”, Review of Economic Studies, 67-3, 413438.
MCAFEE, P. and MCMILLAN, J. (1987) “Auctions with Entry”, Economics Letters, 23, 343-347.
MCAFEE, P. and VINCENT, D. (1997) “Sequentially Optimal Auctions”, Games and Economic
Behavior, 18-2, 246-276.
MYERSON, R.B. (1981) “Optimal Auction Design”, Mathematics of Operation Research, 6-1, 5873.
PLUM, M. (1992) “Characterization and Computation of Nash-Equilibria for Auctions with
Incomplete Information”, International Journal of Game Theory, 20-4, 393-418.
RILEY, J.G. and SAMUELSON, W.F. (1981) “Optimal Auctions”, American Economic Review, 713, 381-392.