Experimental Auctions to Elicit Value for Product Attributes

A sealed-bid, fourth-price Vickrey-style auction was used to measure consumers' willingness to pay for flavor in beef steaks. Consumers from Chicago and San Francisco participated in the experimental auctions. Consumers appeared to express true relative value differences for different product attributes. Market price levels were influenced by the number of participants in a panel, by individual consumers' tastes and preferences, and perhaps by the size of the monetary payment for participating in the experiment. Relative auction value differences are credible values reflecting different consumer values. However, absolute auction values can be altered by experimental design.http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/pdf_view.pl?paperid=12218&ftype=.pd