We study the order of sale in art auctions. The final bid relative to the auctioneer's estimated price declines throughout the course of an auction. A theoretical model shows that in an auction ordered by declining valuation, even in the presence of risk-neutral strategic bidders, the price...

In this article, I report the results of a study of the prices paid by individual buyers at the Fulton fish market in New York City. In principle, this is a highly competitive market in which there should be no predictable price differences across customers who are equally costly to service. The...