Belyanin on color revolutions, part 2

 

http://notes-from-the-golden-horde.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-effect-of-color-revolutions-on.html

Why winners curse

 

 

In Karaganda oblast, the government has begun to distribute land plots in the cities by auction.  But the entrepreneurs want the akimat to go back to doling out the land via individual applications, because they find the auctions expensive. 

There’s a reason for that.  In an auction for land plots, each bidder guesses at what the plot is really worth.  If the bidders are fairly well-informed, the average bidder will likely be more or less right. But he won’t win the land:  The highest bidder will.  Since the winner has overestimated the value of the land, he will eventually be disappointed.  Economists call this “winner’s curse.”

The seller, of course, will make out like a bandit, which is why governments like to auction assets off.  –Leon Taylor tayloralmaty@gmail.com

 

Reference

Azamat Danenbaev.  Akimat dolzhen pryznat’ oshybky y ustranyt’ yx.  (The local government should recognize mistakes and remove them.)  Kursiv’ September 12, 2019.

 

Good reading

Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff.  Thinking strategically.  Norton.  1993.