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We study the problem of designing mechanisms for \emph{information acquisition} scenarios. This setting models strategic interactions between an uniformed \emph{receiver} and a set of informed \emph{senders}. In our model the senders…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-06-13 Federico Cacciamani , Matteo Castiglioni , Nicola Gatti

We study the online resource allocation problem in which at each round, a budget $B$ must be allocated across $K$ arms under censored feedback. An arm yields a reward if and only if two conditions are satisfied: (i) the arm is activated…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-09 Giovanni Montanari , Côme Fiegel , Corentin Pla , Aadirupa Saha , Vianney Perchet

Many sequential decision-making problems in communication networks can be modeled as contextual bandit problems, which are natural extensions of the well-known multi-armed bandit problem. In contextual bandit problems, at each time, an…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2016-05-10 Pranav Sakulkar , Bhaskar Krishnamachari

We design an expected polynomial-time, truthful-in-expectation, (1-1/e)-approximation mechanism for welfare maximization in a fundamental class of combinatorial auctions. Our results apply to bidders with valuations that are m matroid rank…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2011-04-19 Shaddin Dughmi , Tim Roughgarden , Qiqi Yan

Social dilemmas present a significant challenge in multi-agent cooperation because individuals are incentivised to behave in ways that undermine socially optimal outcomes. Consequently, self-interested agents often avoid collective…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-08-02 Richard Willis , Yali Du , Joel Z Leibo , Michael Luck

We develop a framework for designing simple and efficient policies for a family of online allocation and pricing problems, that includes online packing, budget-constrained probing, dynamic pricing, and online contextual bandits with…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-08-03 Alberto Vera , Siddhartha Banerjee , Itai Gurvich

We consider auctions in which the players have very limited knowledge about their own valuations. Specifically, the only information that a Knightian player $i$ has about the profile of true valuations, $\theta^*$, consists of a set of…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2014-04-02 Alessandro Chiesa , Silvio Micali , Zeyuan Allen Zhu

Most microeconomic models of interest involve optimizing a piecewise linear function. These include contract design in hidden-action principal-agent problems, selling an item in posted-price auctions, and bidding in first-price auctions.…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-03-04 Francesco Bacchiocchi , Matteo Castiglioni , Alberto Marchesi , Nicola Gatti

We extend the notion of regret with a welfarist perspective. Focussing on the classic multi-armed bandit (MAB) framework, the current work quantifies the performance of bandit algorithms by applying a fundamental welfare function, namely…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-05-30 Siddharth Barman , Arindam Khan , Arnab Maiti , Ayush Sawarni

Combinatorial Auctions are a central problem in Algorithmic Mechanism Design: pricing and allocating goods to buyers with complex preferences in order to maximize some desired objective (e.g., social welfare, revenue, or profit). The…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-03-19 Avrim Blum , Anupam Gupta , Yishay Mansour , Ankit Sharma

Classic no-regret multi-armed bandit algorithms, including the Upper Confidence Bound (UCB), Hedge, and EXP3, are inherently unfair by design. Their unfairness stems from their objective of playing the most rewarding arm as frequently as…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-14 Abhishek Sinha

We study the welfare of a mechanism in a dynamic environment where a learning investor can make a costly investment to change her value. In many real-world problems, the common assumption that the investor always makes the best responses,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-04 Ce Li , Qianfan Zhang , Weiqiang Zheng

For traffic routing platforms, the choice of which route to recommend to a user depends on the congestion on these routes -- indeed, an individual's utility depends on the number of people using the recommended route at that instance.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-01-24 Pranjal Awasthi , Kush Bhatia , Sreenivas Gollapudi , Kostas Kollias

Aiming to overcome some of the limitations of worst-case analysis, the recently proposed framework of "algorithms with predictions" allows algorithms to be augmented with a (possibly erroneous) machine-learned prediction that they can use…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-03-28 Eric Balkanski , Vasilis Gkatzelis , Xizhi Tan , Cherlin Zhu

In many social computing applications such as online Q&A forums, the best contribution for each task receives some high reward, while all remaining contributions receive an identical, lower reward irrespective of their actual qualities.…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-03-20 Arpita Ghosh , Patrick Hummel

We study the \emph{Submodular Welfare Problem} (SWP), where items are partitioned among agents with monotone submodular utilities to maximize the total welfare under \emph{bandit feedback}. Classical SWP assumes full value-oracle access,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-19 Subham Pokhriyal , Shweta Jain , Vaneet Aggarwal

Network utility maximization (NUM) is a general framework for designing distributed optimization algorithms for large-scale networks. An economic challenge arises in the presence of strategic agents' private information. Existing studies…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-01-13 Meng Zhang , Deepanshu Vasal

We study the mechanism design problem of selling $k$ items to unit-demand buyers with private valuations for the items. A buyer either participates directly in the auction or is represented by an intermediary, who represents a subset of…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-11-23 Gagan Aggarwal , Kshipra Bhawalkar , Guru Guruganesh , Andres Perlroth

We study the problem of designing posted-price mechanisms in order to sell a single unit of a single item within a finite period of time. Motivated by real-world problems, such as, e.g., long-term rental of rooms and apartments, we assume…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-12-11 Giulia Romano , Gianluca Tartaglia , Alberto Marchesi , Nicola Gatti

Auctions in which agents' payoffs are random variables have received increased attention in recent years. In particular, recent work in algorithmic mechanism design has produced mechanisms employing internal randomization, partly in…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-06-15 Shaddin Dughmi , Yuval Peres