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Related papers: Discrete Single-Parameter Optimal Auction Design

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Consider Myerson's optimal auction with respect to an inaccurate prior, e.g., estimated from data, which is an underestimation of the true value distribution. Can the auctioneer expect getting at least the optimal revenue w.r.t. the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-11-10 Ziyun Chen , Zhiyi Huang , Dorsa Majdi , Zipeng Yan

Classical optimal auction theory assumes that bids reach the seller directly. We study how this picture changes when a revenue-maximizing intermediary controls access to the seller's auction. Motivated by blockchain auctions, online…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-22 Jingyi Liu , Aviad Rubinstein , Ertem Nusret Tas , S. Matthew Weinberg , Qianfan Zhang

In the design and analysis of revenue-maximizing auctions, auction performance is typically measured with respect to a prior distribution over inputs. The most obvious source for such a distribution is past data. The goal is to understand…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-11-30 Richard Cole , Tim Roughgarden

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 provide algorithms that learn simple auctions whose revenue is approximately optimal in multi-item multi-bidder settings, for a wide range of valuations including unit-demand, additive, constrained additive, XOS, and subadditive. We…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-09-04 Yang Cai , Constantinos Daskalakis

We study an abstract optimal auction problem for a single good or service. This problem includes environments where agents have budgets, risk preferences, or multi-dimensional preferences over several possible configurations of the good…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-03-23 Saeed Alaei , Hu Fu , Nima Haghpanah , Jason Hartline , Azarakhsh Malekian

We consider the problem of designing revenue-optimal auctions for selling two items and bidders' valuations are independent among bidders but negatively correlated among items. In this paper, we obtain the closed-form optimal auction for…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2016-06-03 Pingzhong Tang , Zihe Wang

One of the most celebrated results in mechanism design is Myerson's characterization of the revenue optimal auction for selling a single item. However, this result relies heavily on the assumption that buyers are indifferent to risk. In…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2018-10-08 Evdokia Nikolova , Emmanouil Pountourakis , Ger Yang

Optimal mechanisms have been provided in quite general multi-item settings, as long as each bidder's type distribution is given explicitly by listing every type in the support along with its associated probability. In the implicit setting,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-03-09 Constantinos Daskalakis , Alan Deckelbaum , Christos Tzamos

We introduce locality: a new property of multi-bidder auctions that formally separates the simplicity of optimal single-dimensional multi-bidder auctions from the complexity of optimal multi-dimensional multi-bidder auctions. Specifically,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-11-08 S. Matthew Weinberg , Zixin Zhou

We resolve the complexity of revenue-optimal deterministic auctions in the unit-demand single-buyer Bayesian setting, i.e., the optimal item pricing problem, when the buyer's values for the items are independent. We show that the problem of…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-02-24 Xi Chen , Ilias Diakonikolas , Dimitris Paparas , Xiaorui Sun , Mihalis Yannakakis

The current art in optimal combinatorial auctions is limited to handling the case of single units of multiple items, with each bidder bidding on exactly one bundle (single minded bidders). This paper extends the current art by proposing an…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2010-04-27 Sujit Gujar , Y Narahari

Myerson's seminal characterization of the revenue-optimal auction for a single item \cite{myerson1981optimal} remains a cornerstone of mechanism design. However, generalizing this framework to multi-item settings has proven exceptionally…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-10-08 Marios Mertzanidis , Athina Terzoglou

We develop a novel optimization model to maximize the profit of a Demand-Side Platform (DSP) while ensuring that the budget utilization preferences of the DSP's advertiser clients are adequately met. Our model is highly flexible and can be…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-05-31 Alfonso Lobos , Paul Grigas , Zheng Wen , Kuang-chih Lee

We show that computing the revenue-optimal deterministic auction in unit-demand single-buyer Bayesian settings, i.e. the optimal item-pricing, is computationally hard even in single-item settings where the buyer's value distribution is a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-03-10 Constantinos Daskalakis , Alan Deckelbaum , Christos Tzamos

We study the problem of characterizing revenue optimal auctions for single-minded buyers. Each buyer is interested only in a specific bundle of items and has a value for the same. Both his bundle and its value are his private information.…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2010-09-14 Vineet Abhishek , Bruce Hajek

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

This paper studies mechanism design for revenue maximization in a distribution-reporting setting, where the auctioneer does not know the buyers' true value distributions. Instead, each buyer reports and commits to a bid distribution in the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-07-08 Xiaotie Deng , Yanru Guan , Ningyuan Li , Zihe Wang , Jie Zhang

We consider the problem of welfare maximization in two-sided markets using simple mechanisms that are prior-independent. The Myerson-Satterthwaite impossibility theorem shows that even for bilateral trade, there is no feasible (IR,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-12-24 Moshe Babaioff , Kira Goldner , Yannai A. Gonczarowski

We study efficiency loss in Bayesian revenue optimal auctions. We quantify this as the worst case ratio of loss in the realized social welfare to the social welfare that can be realized by an efficient auction. Our focus is on auctions with…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2010-09-14 Vineet Abhishek , Bruce Hajek