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Related papers: Robust Auction Design with Support Information

200 papers

We study the problem of learning to bid when the bidder's value is dynamic, i.e., when the current value depends on past outcomes. Specifically, we consider a bidder participating in repeated second-price auctions whose value depends on the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-28 Benjamin Heymann , Otmane Sakhi

A seller is selling a pair of divisible complementary goods to an agent. The agent consumes the goods only in a specific ratio and freely disposes of excess in either goods. The value of the bundle and the ratio are private information of…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-07-15 Komal Malik , Kolagani Paramahamsa

This paper reexamines the classic problem of revenue maximization in single-item auctions with $n$ buyers under the lens of the robust optimization framework. The celebrated Myerson's mechanism is the format that maximizes the seller's…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-09-16 Nick Gravin , Zhiqi Wang

We study a repeated trading problem in which a mechanism designer facilitates trade between a single seller and multiple buyers. Our model generalizes the classic bilateral trade setting to a multi-buyer environment. Specifically, the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-03-04 Anna Lunghi , Matteo Castiglioni , Alberto Marchesi

I construct a novel random double auction as a robust bilateral trading mechanism for a profit-maximizing intermediary who facilitates trade between a buyer and a seller. It works as follows. The intermediary publicly commits to charging a…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-05-11 Wanchang Zhang

We study revenue optimization pricing algorithms for repeated posted-price auctions where a seller interacts with a single strategic buyer that holds a fixed private valuation. We show that, in the case when both the seller and the buyer…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2018-05-08 Arsenii Vanunts , Alexey Drutsa

We study the problem of multi-dimensional revenue maximization when selling $m$ items to a buyer that has additive valuations for them, drawn from a (possibly correlated) prior distribution. Unlike traditional Bayesian auction design, we…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-04-29 Yiannis Giannakopoulos , Diogo Poças , Alexandros Tsigonias-Dimitriadis

This study investigates a robust screening problem under distributional ambiguity, where a seller is uncertain about a buyer's true valuation distribution, knowing only that it lies near a reference distribution measured by the Wasserstein…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-05-19 Shumin Ma , Daniel Zhuoyu Long , Lijian Lu

We consider the problem of a single seller repeatedly selling a single item to a single buyer (specifically, the buyer has a value drawn fresh from known distribution $D$ in every round). Prior work assumes that the buyer is fully rational…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-11-28 Mark Braverman , Jieming Mao , Jon Schneider , S. Matthew Weinberg

Algorithms increasingly automate bidding in online auctions, raising concerns about tacit bid suppression and revenue shortfalls. Prior work identifies individual mechanisms behind algorithmic bid suppression, but it remains unclear which…

General Economics · Economics 2026-03-24 Pranjal Rawat

Good economic mechanisms depend on the preferences of participants in the mechanism. For example, the revenue-optimal auction for selling an item is parameterized by a reserve price, and the appropriate reserve price depends on how much the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2014-06-10 Shuchi Chawla , Jason Hartline , Denis Nekipelov

The standard framework of online bidding algorithm design assumes that the seller commits himself to faithfully implementing the rules of the adopted auction. However, the seller may attempt to cheat in execution to increase his revenue if…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-11-28 Qian Wang , Xuanzhi Xia , Zongjun Yang , Xiaotie Deng , Yuqing Kong , Zhilin Zhang , Liang Wang , Chuan Yu , Jian Xu , Bo Zheng

The design of revenue-maximizing combinatorial auctions, i.e. multi-item auctions over bundles of goods, is one of the most fundamental problems in computational economics, unsolved even for two bidders and two items for sale. In the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2016-06-15 Maria-Florina Balcan , Tuomas Sandholm , Ellen Vitercik

This paper studies optimal auction design when valuations depend endogenously on post-auction collaboration between the seller and the winning bidder. Both parties exert non-contractible efforts after the auction, generating a double moral…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-04-21 Dazhong Wang , Ruqu Wang , Xinyi Xu

In this paper we design information elicitation mechanisms for Bayesian auctions. While in Bayesian mechanism design the distributions of the players' private types are often assumed to be common knowledge, information elicitation considers…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2018-06-27 Jing Chen , Bo Li , Yingkai Li

We study mechanism design when agents may have hidden secondary goals which will manifest as non-trivial preferences among outcomes for which their primary utility is the same. We show that in such cases, a mechanism is robust against…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-07-25 Renato Paes Leme , Jon Schneider , Hanrui Zhang

In this study, we apply reinforcement learning techniques and propose what we call reinforcement mechanism design to tackle the dynamic pricing problem in sponsored search auctions. In contrast to previous game-theoretical approaches that…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-11-29 Weiran Shen , Binghui Peng , Hanpeng Liu , Michael Zhang , Ruohan Qian , Yan Hong , Zhi Guo , Zongyao Ding , Pengjun Lu , Pingzhong Tang

When selling many goods with independent valuations, we develop a distributionally robust framework, consisting of a two-player game between seller and nature. The seller has only limited knowledge about the value distribution. The seller…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-03-30 Tim S. G. van Eck , Pieter Kleer , Johan S. H. van Leeuwaarden

We study the problem of designing optimal auctions under restrictions on the set of permissible allocations. In addition to allowing us to restrict to deterministic mechanisms, we can also indirectly model non-additive valuations. We prove…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2016-06-07 Ian Kash , Rafael Frongillo

We study the design of prior-independent auctions in a setting with heterogeneous bidders. In particular, we consider the setting of selling to $n$ bidders whose values are drawn from $n$ independent but not necessarily identical…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-11-08 Guru Guruganesh , Aranyak Mehta , Di Wang , Kangning Wang