Performance of the Vickrey auction for digital goods under various bid distributions
The generalized Vickrey auction is analysed as a mechanism for setting prices of digital goods. A selection of models of the bidders behaviour (embodied by the probability distribution of their bids values) are employed to derive the optimal auctioneers choice as to the number of items to sell. The satisfaction levels of both the auctioneer and the bidders are taken into account through the evaluation of the expected revenues, the percentage of winning bidders and their aggregated utilities under each of the probabilistic scenarios considered.
vickrey auctions digital goods bid distributions