User:Max7437
Wikipedia Editing Talk: Swedeauction
More than a hundred professors and other researchers World-wide are now engaged more or less full time in Auction Design for some specific use.
See the Wikipedia “Dutch auction” article. Dutch auction was originally designed in 1887 for farm products and fish but is now being used for other products as well and certainly not only in Holland. Swedeauction dates from 1982. The proposed Swedeauction article is longer than the Dutch auction article, but then Swedeauction is a lot more complicated than Dutch auction. Dutch auction is one-step, whereas Swedeauction is multiple-step. More space is thus needed to explain what Swedeauction really is. It is not possible to summarize Swedeauction in just a few short sentences. Rewrite the article and you will probably spoil it.
A Dutch auction involving a normal batch of 2000 roses takes 4 seconds. Speed is more important than accuracy, when setting the price for roses. A Swedeauction involving a family house in the suburbs takes 10 days. Accuracy is a lot more important than speed, when setting the price for the house.
One might thus say that of all known auction types Dutch auction and Swedeauction are located on opposite sides of the field.
Just as it is important for Wikipedia to have an article on Dutch auction it is equally important to have an article on Swedeauction.
Day by day on-line auctions increase in importance and turnover World-wide. Compared to the situation a few years ago many more individuals now come in close contact with auctions of various types. Auctions are almost everyones business nowadays. The need for all sorts of information about auctions is obvious. This is no longer a matter just for MBA-students.
The present article was written specifically for Wikipedia (out of an admiration for Wikipedia). The article is completely new and has not appeared anywhere else. It took almost a year to research and write. The article is certainly not “copied and pasted” from any one document. Instead it consists of material from very many sources, painstakingly collected and fitted together to create this article for Wikipedia.
The article is certainly not “unreferenced”. As one can see there are 31 references and 2 “further reading” hints, (comprehensive books by Paul Klemperer and Paul Milgrom).
Economics is divided into Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. Game theory is an important part of Microeconomics. Auction theory is an important part of Game theory. Auctioneering is Auction theory as practiced in everyday business life.
The article does not attempt to promote Swedeauction (ten days of bidding) as opposed to Dutch auction or any other type of auction. Instead it explains what Swedeauction is. Then it is up to the user to decide if Swedeauction possibly is the best way to set the price for whatever product or service that the user has an interest in. In many cases English auction (90 seconds) or Dutch auction (4 seconds) is a better choice than Swedeauction. Even Asking Price may be a better choice, thus avoiding auction sale altogether.
It happens that I am just talking to a childhood friend now living in Florida. She says that realtors in her area still use the obsolete Asking Price method and that it sometimes takes more than a year to sell a house and then with only one or possibly two bidders, not twenty or fifty as in Swedeauction. This only shows how ignorant realtors and the general public are. They are way behind leading microeconomic researchers. It seems that there is some kind of thick wall between the researchers and the general public. The aim of the present article is to tear down that wall. Once the present article is approved, there will be more Wikipedia articles about other types of auctions. Step by step the general public will get to know more about different types of auctions and when to use the one or the other.
On 2007-10-16 I attended a lecture at the Swedish Royal Academy of Science just after the award of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics was made public. I then mentioned the names Paul Klemperer and Paul Milgrom. (See “Further reading”). The chairman of the prize committee, professor Jorgen Weibull then confirmed that these two professors are being closely watched. Obviously this means that they quite possibly may get the prize just a few years from now.
It is hoped that many Wikipedia users will read this article and that it will be an aid for them in their everyday business life when confronted with auctions of various types.
A speedy delation tag was placed on “Swedeauction” just 3 minutes after the article was originally submitted. How can anybody judge the merits of an article in so short a time?
The author of course strongly objects to the article being considered for deletion.
Username: Max7437 (Max7437 11:13, 4 November 2007 (UTC)) Max7437 11:13, 4 November 2007 (UTC)