Auction Mechanism Design

First-price vs Vickrey (second-price) • Explore bidder strategies • Revenue equivalence

Bidders

Strategy

Truthful: bid = value (optimal for Vickrey)
Bid-Shading: bid = value × (n-1)/n (optimal for first-price, uniform vals)
Overbid: bid = value × 1.2

Auction Results

Run auction to see results.
BidderValueBidSurplus

Revenue over 1000 Trials

Blue = First-Price • Orange = Vickrey • Revenue Equivalence theorem: equal in expectation (uniform i.i.d. values)

Value Distribution & Equilibrium Bids

Each bidder's value (circle) and bid (triangle below) • Winner highlighted