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Related papers: The Complexity of Pacing for Second-Price Auctions

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In this paper, we study the problem of learning to bid in repeated first-price auctions with budget constraints. In each period, the decision maker needs to submit a bid to win the auction and maximize the total collected reward, subject to…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-03-10 Zeng Fu , Jiashuo Jiang , Yuan Zhou

The Generalized Second Price (GSP) auction used typically to model sponsored search auctions does not include the notion of budget constraints, which is present in practice. Motivated by this, we introduce the different variants of GSP…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2013-09-27 Josep Diaz , Ioannis Giotis , Lefteris Kirousis , Evangelos Markakis , Maria Serna

We present an extensive analysis of the key problem of learning optimal reserve prices for generalized second price auctions. We describe two algorithms for this task: one based on density estimation, and a novel algorithm benefiting from…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2015-06-10 Mehryar Mohri , Andres Munoz Medina

We compute equilibrium strategies in multi-stage games with continuous signal and action spaces as they are widely used in the management sciences and economics. Examples include sequential sales via auctions, multi-stage elimination…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-07-23 Fabian R. Pieroth , Nils Kohring , Martin Bichler

We present an algorithm for computing pure-strategy epsilon-perfect Bayesian equilibria in sequential auctions with continuous action and value spaces. Importantly, our algorithm includes a verification phase that computes an upper bound on…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-02-19 Vinzenz Thoma , Vitor Bosshard , Sven Seuken

We study problems arising in real-time auction markets, common in e-commerce and computational advertising, where bidders face the problem of calculating optimal bids. We focus upon a contract management problem where a demand aggregator is…

Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science · Computer Science 2022-06-28 Ryan J. Kinnear , Ravi R. Mazumdar , Peter Marbach

We study a seller who sells a single good to multiple bidders with uncertainty over the joint distribution of bidders' valuations, as well as bidders' higher-order beliefs about their opponents. The seller only knows the (possibly…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-02-16 Ethan Che

We study a game played between advertisers in an online ad platform. The platform sells ad impressions by first-price auction and provides autobidding algorithms that optimize bids on each advertiser's behalf, subject to advertiser…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-11-16 Yiding Feng , Brendan Lucier , Aleksandrs Slivkins

We study a class of iterative combinatorial auctions which can be viewed as subgradient descent methods for the problem of pricing bundles to balance supply and demand. We provide concrete convergence rates for auctions in this class,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2016-06-01 Jacob Abernethy , Sébastien Lahaie , Matus Telgarsky

High-stakes auctions are often preceded by nonbinding communication between bidders and the seller. Motivated by these practices, this paper examines a two-period model in which two bidders send private cheap talk messages to the seller…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-03-19 Eric Yan

Traditional methods for computing equilibria in auctions become computationally intractable as auction complexity increases, particularly in multi-item and dynamic auctions. This paper introduces a self-play based reinforcement learning…

General Economics · Economics 2024-10-21 Pranjal Rawat

We study the complexity of finding an approximate (pure) Bayesian Nash equilibrium in a first-price auction with common priors when the tie-breaking rule is part of the input. We show that the problem is PPAD-complete even when the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-03-30 Xi Chen , Binghui Peng

In non-truthful auctions such as first-price and all-pay auctions, the independent strategic behaviors of bidders, with the corresponding Bayes-Nash equilibrium notion, are notoriously difficult to characterize and can cause undesirable…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-10-28 Hu Fu , Tao Lin

This paper develops algorithms to solve strong-substitutes product-mix auctions. That is, it finds competitive equilibrium prices and quantities for agents who use this auction's bidding language to truthfully express their…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-07-11 Elizabeth Baldwin , Paul W. Goldberg , Paul Klemperer , Edwin Lock

The Generalized Second Price (GSP) auction is the primary auction used for monetizing the use of the Internet. It is well-known that truthtelling is not a dominant strategy in this auction and that inefficient equilibria can arise. In this…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2014-04-28 Ioannis Caragiannis , Christos Kaklamanis , Panagiotis Kanellopoulos , Maria Kyropoulou , Brendan Lucier , Renato Paes Leme , Éva Tardos

Budget pacing is critical in online advertising to align spend with campaign goals under dynamic auctions. Existing pacing methods often rely on ad-hoc parameter tuning, which can be unstable and inefficient. We propose a principled…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-10 Sreeja Apparaju , Yichuan Niu , Xixi Qi

The majority of online marketplaces offer promotion programs to sellers to acquire additional customers for their products. These programs typically allow sellers to allocate advertising budgets to promote their products, with higher…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-02-05 Anastasiia Soboleva , Alexander Ledovsky , Yuriy Dorn , Egor Samosvat , Andrey Tikhanov , Fyodor Prazdnikov

A standard result from auction theory is that bidding truthfully in a second price auction is a weakly dominant strategy. The result, however, does not apply in the presence of Cost Per Action (CPA) constraints. Such constraints exist, for…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-05-13 Benjamin Heymann

We model a procurement scenario in which two \textit{imperfect} bidders act simultaneously on behalf of a single buyer, a configuration common in display advertising and referred to as \textit{side-by-side bidding} but largely unexplored in…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-12-05 Benjamin Heymann

In many repeated auction settings, participants care not only about how frequently they win but also how their winnings are distributed over time. This problem arises in various practical domains where avoiding congested demand is crucial,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-06-13 Giannis Fikioris , Robert Kleinberg , Yoav Kolumbus , Raunak Kumar , Yishay Mansour , Éva Tardos