Public vs. Secret Reserve Prices in Auctions: Evidence from Combining Field and Lab Experiments

Abstract

In this paper, we report both field and laboratory experimental results on the effects of setting public versus private reserve prices in ascending auctions. The field experiments were performed with a large online used automobile seller. In addition to providing a check on the results of the field experiment, we use laboratory experiments to implement an important treatment that we could not use in our field experiments.We find no evidence in the field or in the lab of an effect of reserve price presentation on auction revenues.