Auctions vs negotiations: a study of price differentials
基于216份医疗用品采购合同数据，检验拍卖与谈判是否导致显著不同的价格，发现拍卖虽带来更厚的市场，但价格并未显著低于谈判。
Recent contributions in auction and bargaining theory suggest that a procurer should place more faith in the power of competition among alternative suppliers than in his or her own negotiating skill. Based on data from 216 contracts between procurers and suppliers of medical and surgical articles, we test whether auctions and bargaining result in significantly different prices. The main results are that auctions give 'thicker' markets compared with negotiations, as expected, but that auctions do not result in significantly lower prices compared with negotiations.