Standard procurement models assume that the buyer knows the quality of the
good at the time of procurement; however, in many settings, the quality is
learned only long after the transaction. We study procurement problems in which
the buyer’s valuation of the supplied good depends directly on its quality,
which is unverifiable and unobservable to the buyer. For a broad class of
procurement problems, we identify procurement mechanisms maximizing any
weighted average of the buyer’s expected payoff and social surplus. The optimal
mechanism can be implemented by an auction that restricts sellers to submit
bids within specific intervals.

Este artículo explora los viajes en el tiempo y sus implicaciones.

Descargar PDF: