Auctions as a Means of Creating a Market for Public Goods from Agriculture
研究了通过竞争性拍卖向农民授予环保合同来创建乡村环境商品和服务市场的可能性，分析了拍卖在信息不对称和不确定性下的优势及策略性投标行为对效率的影响。
The paper looks at the possibility of creating a market for environmental goods and services in the countryside by awarding conservation contracts to farmers on the basis of competitive bidding. Auctions have several theoretical advantages over alternative allocation mechanisms (such as standard‐rate payments) because they allow the participants to deal with informational asymmetries and the uncertainty about the value of the (non‐market) goods being traded. A formal model of bidding behaviour in ‘green auctions’ shows that bidding strategies are determined by the individual farmers' costs of implementing the conservation contracts and their beliefs about the maximum acceptable payment level, making the auction an imperfect cost revelation mechanism. Auctions can reduce the information rents accruing to farmers and can increase the cost‐effectiveness of public goods provision. Strategic bidding behaviour in multiple‐signup auctions as well as high transaction costs are potential sources of reduced efficiency.