Auctions with flexible information acquisition

Abstract

We consider independent private value auctions in which prior to bidding, each bidder engages in fully flexible information acquisition, choosing not only how much information but also what information to acquire about his value. Focusing on a tractable environment with binary underlying values and posterior-separable information costs, we characterize the unique symmetric equilibrium and investigate the effects of information costs on auction outcomes. We also analyze how the reserve price influences bidders' information-acquisition behavior and study its implications for the seller's expected revenue.