ERS Group Provides Bidding Support in Swiss Spectrum Auction ERS Group auction experts were retained to assist a bidder in developing a bidding strategy for use in electromagnetic spectrum license auctions held in Switzerland. Our analysis identified alternative bidding scenarios and competitors, provided an assessment of the competition, examined implications of bidder asymmetries, and implemented practice games. ERS Group Reviews FERC Auction Proposal for Pipeline Capacity On behalf of a major interstate pipeline, ERS Group Special Consultant R. Preston McAfee and Academic Affiliate Charles Plott submitted a statement to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning a proposed auction of pipeline capacity. Professors McAfee and Plott concluded the proposal raised a number of difficult auction issues that had not been resolved either theoretically or experimentally by experts in auction design. Although the use of capacity auctions has promise for improving the performance of the natural gas industry, the ERS Group experts recommended to the FERC that it should proceed cautiously and avoid the creation of a deficient auction mechanism. The FERC agreed and chose not to implement the proposed auction. ERS Group Special Consultant R. Preston McAfee Assists in Design of Mexican Spectrum Auction ERS Group Special Consultant R. Preston McAfee assisted The Commission Federal de Telecomunicaciones (COFETEL), the Mexican telecommunications agency, in its design of spectrum licenses. COFETEL was interested in an auction design that would be understandable to administrators and bidders, transparent and able to withstand public scrutiny, and completed in a short time period. The auction design developed by Professor McAfee and a team of auction experts was considered an important success and was successfully employed in sales generating more than $1.1 billion. ERS Group Assists in Design of Auction for Mexican Mineral Rights ERS Group Special Consultant R. Preston McAfee provided advice to Mexico’s Ministry of Commerce in the design of auctions to privatize that country's gold, silver, and phosphate mines. Among the issues considered were the use of sealed versus open bids, the establishment of minimum bids, and an installment payment scheme. ERS Group Special Consultant R. Preston McAfee Designs Auction Used in $20 Billion Sale of Spectrum Licenses by FCC ERS Group Special Consultant R. Preston McAfee was a co-inventor (with Professors Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson) of the simultaneous ascending auction adopted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as its primary auction mechanism used for the sale of more than $20 billion of electromagnetic spectrum licenses. An ERS Group Economist advised the FCC in its early application of spectrum auctions.