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This paper aims to investigate and achieve seller-side fairness within online marketplaces, where many sellers and their items are not sufficiently exposed to customers in an e-commerce platform. This phenomenon raises concerns regarding…

This paper examines whether widely used online learning algorithms in pricing can independently reach competitive outcomes or instead foster tacit collusion. This issue has drawn considerable attention from competition regulators as…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-25 Martin Bichler , Julius Durmann , Matthias Oberlechner

This paper studies Markov perfect equilibria in a repeated duopoly model where sellers choose algorithms. An algorithm is a mapping from the competitor's price to own price. Once set, algorithms respond quickly. Customers arrive randomly…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-07-04 Rohit Lamba , Sergey Zhuk

We introduce pricing formulas for competition and collusion models of two-sided markets with an outside option. For the competition model, we find conditions under which prices and consumer surplus may increase or decrease if the outside…

General Economics · Economics 2025-05-12 Cristian Chica , Yinglong Guo , Gilad Lerman

We consider two competing platforms operating in a two-sided market and offering identical services to their customers at potentially different prices. The objective of each platform is to maximize its throughput or revenue by suitably…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-02-03 Mansi Sood , Ankur A. Kulkarni , Sharayu Moharir

When online sellers use AI learning algorithms to automatically compete on e-commerce platforms, there is concern that they will learn to coordinate on higher than competitive prices. However, this concern was primarily raised in…

General Economics · Economics 2025-11-03 Hangcheng Zhao , Ron Berman

Stable matching, a classical model for two-sided markets, has long been studied with little consideration for how each side's preferences are learned. With the advent of massive online markets powered by data-driven matching platforms, it…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-07-14 Lydia T. Liu , Horia Mania , Michael I. Jordan

Aligning AI systems with human values remains a fundamental challenge, but does our inability to create perfectly aligned models preclude obtaining the benefits of alignment? We study a strategic setting where a human user interacts with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-04 Natalie Collina , Surbhi Goel , Aaron Roth , Emily Ryu , Mirah Shi

We study a three-layer data market comprising users (data owners), platforms, and a data buyer. Each user benefits from platform services in exchange for data, incurring privacy loss when their data, albeit noisily, is shared with the…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-11-19 Alireza Fallah , Michael I. Jordan , Ali Makhdoumi , Azarakhsh Malekian

Machine learning models play a key role for service providers looking to gain market share in consumer markets. However, traditional learning approaches do not take into account the existence of additional providers, who compete with each…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-08-15 Ohad Einav , Nir Rosenfeld

Major online platforms today can be thought of as two-sided markets with producers and customers of goods and services. There have been concerns that over-emphasis on customer satisfaction by the platforms may affect the well-being of the…

Social and Information Networks · Computer Science 2019-11-21 Gourab K Patro , Abhijnan Chakraborty , Niloy Ganguly , Krishna P. Gummadi

Sponsored search mechanisms have drawn much attention from both academic community and industry in recent years since the seminal papers of [13] and [14]. However, most of the existing literature concentrates on the mechanism design and…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2010-09-01 Jian Liu , Dah Ming Chiu

Recent scholarly work has extensively examined the phenomenon of algorithmic collusion driven by AI-enabled pricing algorithms. However, online platforms commonly deploy recommender systems that influence how consumers discover and purchase…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-12-17 Xingchen Xu , Stephanie Lee , Yong Tan

As e-commerce marketplaces continue to grow in popularity, it has become increasingly important to understand the role and impact of marketplace operators on competition and social welfare. We model a marketplace operator as an entity that…

We study the propensity of independent algorithms to collude in repeated Cournot duopoly games. Specifically, we investigate the predictive power of different oligopoly and bargaining solutions regarding the effect of asymmetry between…

General Economics · Economics 2025-01-14 Simon Martin , Hans-Theo Normann , Paul Püplichhuisen , Tobias Werner

The rise of algorithmic pricing in online retail platforms has attracted significant interest in how autonomous software agents interact under competition. This article explores the potential emergence of algorithmic collusion -…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-04-24 Martin Bichler , Julius Durmann , Matthias Oberlechner

Dynamic facility location problems predominantly suppose a monopoly over the service or product provided. Nonetheless, this premise can be a severe oversimplification in the presence of market competitors, as customers may prefer facilities…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-20 Warley Almeida Silva , Margarida Carvalho , Sanjay Dominik Jena

We examine the dynamics of informational efficiency in a market with asymmetrically informed, boundedly rational traders who adaptively learn optimal strategies using simple multiarmed bandit (MAB) algorithms. The strategies available to…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2024-11-11 Aleksei Pastushkov

Recent research in industrial organisation has investigated the essential place that middlemen have in the networks that make up our global economy. In this paper we attempt to understand how such middlemen compete with each other through a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2013-10-15 Robert P. Gilles , Dimitrios Diamantaras

Motivated by agentic markets -- two-sided markets in which consumers and businesses are assisted by AI tools that facilitate consumers' search -- we study the impact of improved search technology on learning and welfare in markets. We put…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-03-30 Brendan Lucier , Nicole Immorlica , Markus Mobius , Aleksandrs Slivkins , Daniel G. Goldstein , Jake M. Hofman , Sonia Jaffe , David M. Rothschild