Robust Predictions in Coasian Bargaining

Abstract

This paper studies robust predictions when players may have additional information in an otherwise standard seller-offer bargaining with private values. Players’ extra information gives rise to higher-order uncertainties about the underlying surplus. We show that the equilibrium outcomes in the frequent-offer limit depend critically on the nature of second-order uncertainty: (i) when the seller’s beliefs about the buyer’s values are public, the limiting equilibrium outcomes are efficient and any surplus division is possible; (ii) when the seller’s beliefs are private, any feasible and individually rational payoffs can be the limiting equilibrium payoffs.(JEL C78, D82, D83)