Imitation Perfection—A Simple Rule to Prevent Discrimination in Procurement
提出“模仿完美”规则,显著限制采购中的歧视行为,确保同分布投标者获得相同期望效用,但该规则与异质投标者下的收益和社会剩余优化存在冲突。
Procurement regulation aimed at curbing discrimination requires equal treatment of sellers. However, Deb and Pai (2017) show that such regulation imposes virtually no restrictions on the ability to discriminate. We propose a simple rule—imitation perfection—that restricts discrimination significantly. It ensures that in every equilibrium, bidders with the same valuation distribution and the same valuation earn the same expected utility. If all bidders are homogeneous, revenue and social surplus optimal auctions consistent with imitation perfection exist. For heterogeneous bidders, however, it is incompatible with revenue and social surplus optimization. Thus, a trade-off between non-discrimination and optimality exists.