First Price Auction (Expected Payoff)

Question

I'm trying to solve followed first-price auction problem.

Bidder's pdf is $$ f(v_i)= \begin{cases} \dfrac{1}{8}v_i, & \text{if} & 0\leq v_i\leq4\\ 0, & \text{if} & \text{otherwise}\\ \end{cases} $$

Bidders only know their own values. One gets 0 if lose the auction and ($v_i-b_i$) if win the auction game.

The question asks the symmetric bidders' bid under Bayesian Nash equilibrium and expected payoff of bidders and seller.

So, one bidder will maximize as follows:

$$\max_{b_1}\,\,(v_1-b_1)\Pr(b_1>b_2)$$

If we take the derivative with respect to $b_1$ we get

$$b(v_1)=\dfrac{\int v_1f(v_1)\,dv_1}{F(v_1)}$$

We know from question $f(v_1)=\dfrac{1}{8}v_i$ and we can find $F(v_1)=\dfrac{1}{16}v_i^2$. If we replace them, we get

$$b(v_1)=\dfrac{\int v_1\dfrac{1}{8}v_1\,dv_1}{\dfrac{1}{16}v_1^2} = \dfrac{2}{3}v_1$$

So this is the bidding of bidder 1. However, I couldn't find the expected payoff bidder 1 and bidder 2. My question is how can I use PDF or CDF to find the expected payoffs of the bidders.

Answer 1

Let me answer here putting together all the hints in the comments.

You've figured out that the equilibrium bid for a type $v$ bidder is $b(v) = \frac{2}{3}v$.

The bids are strictly increasing in $v$, so bidder $i$ wins whenever $b(v_i) \geq b(v_j)$ or $v_i \geq v_j$.

The expected payoff for a type $v$ bidder is thus $$ (v -b(v))P(b_1 \geq b_2) $$ or $$ (v - \frac{2}{3}v)P(v \geq v_2) = \frac{1}{3}P(v \geq v_2) $$ So what is the probability that $v \geq v_2$?

By definition of CDF $P(x \leq v) = F(v) = \int_0^v f(x) dx$

So $P(v_2 \leq v) = F(v)$.

Thus expected utility for a type $v$ bidder is: $$ u(v) = \frac{v}{3} F(v) $$