Information Revelation in Multi-attribute Reverse Auctions: An Experimental Examination

This study experimentally examines the effects of information revelation in multi-attribute reverse auctions. In particular, two treatments are carried out: revelation of limit-sets which indicate the admissible bids, and revelation of limit-sets and winning bids. The results show no significant difference between the auctions with different information revelation in terms of allocative efficiency, joint gain, outcome equity and the bidders´ profit. The buyer´s profit in the auctions providing winning bids was, however, significantly higher than those auctions with limit-sets only. The latter auctions required more bids and rounds, but the bidders´ concessions were much smaller. This indicates that the disclosure of winning bids leads to quicker convergence with larger concessions. It was also found to reduce the differences in subjective outcomes between the winner and non-winner groups.