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Finding the optimal (revenue-maximizing) mechanism to sell multiple items has been a prominent and notoriously difficult open problem. Existing work has mainly focused on deriving analytical results tailored to a particular class of…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-01-09 Kento Hashimoto , Keita Kuwahara , Reo Nonaka

We consider the problem of the optimization of bidding strategies in prior-dependent revenue-maximizing auctions, when the seller fixes the reserve prices based on the bid distributions. Our study is done in the setting where one bidder is…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-05-15 Thomas Nedelec , Noureddine El Karoui , Vianney Perchet

We study the power of price discrimination via an intermediary in bilateral trade, when there is a revenue-maximizing seller selling an item to a buyer with a private value drawn from a prior. Between the seller and the buyer, there is an…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-04-28 Shao-Heng Ko , Kamesh Munagala

We consider the revenue maximization problem for an online retailer who plans to display in order a set of products differing in their prices and qualities. Consumers have attention spans, i.e., the maximum number of products they are…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-11-11 Ningyuan Chen , Anran Li , Shuoguang Yang

Motivated by practical constraints in online advertising, we investigate single-parameter auction design for bidders with constraints on their Return On Investment (ROI) -- a targeted minimum ratio between the obtained value and the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-10-04 Hongtao Lv , Xiaohui Bei , Zhenzhe Zheng , Fan Wu

Proportionality is an attractive fairness concept that has been applied to a range of problems including the facility location problem, a classic problem in social choice. In our work, we propose a concept called Strong Proportionality,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-06-15 Haris Aziz , Alexander Lam , Mashbat Suzuki , Toby Walsh

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

We investigate a seller's revenue-maximizing mechanism in a setting where a desirable good is sold together with an undesirable bad (e.g., advertisements) that generates third-party revenue. The buyer's private information is…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-02-02 Kolagani Paramahamsa

Multi-item revenue-optimal mechanisms are known to be extremely complex, often offering buyers randomized lotteries of goods. In the standard buy-one model, it is known that optimal mechanisms can yield revenue infinitely higher than that…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-11-22 Sepehr Assadi , Vikram Kher , George Li , Ariel Schvartzman

We introduce a general model of resource allocation with customer choice. In this model, there are multiple resources that are available over a finite horizon. The resources are non-replenishable and perishable. Each unit of a resource can…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-11-06 Guillermo Gallego , Anran Li , Van-Anh Truong , Xinshang Wang

Fair division mechanisms for indivisible goods require agent orderings to deterministically select one allocation when running the algorithm in practice. We introduce position envy-freeness up to one good (PEF1) as a fairness criterion for…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-18 Ryoga Mahara , Ryuhei Mizutani , Taihei Oki , Tomohiko Yokoyama

We address the problem of improving bidders' strategies in prior-dependent revenue-maximizing auctions and introduce a simple and generic method to design novel bidding strategies if the seller uses past bids to optimize her mechanism. We…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-09-15 Thomas Nedelec , Marc Abeille , Clément Calauzènes , Benjamin Heymann , Vianney Perchet , Noureddine El Karoui

Modular design maximizes utility by using standardized components in large-scale systems. From a manufacturing perspective, it supports green technology by reducing material waste and improving reusability. Industrially, it offers economic…

Emerging Technologies · Computer Science 2025-03-18 Sumin Lee , Namwoo Kang

Selling a single item to $n$ self-interested buyers is a fundamental problem in economics, where the two objectives typically considered are welfare maximization and revenue maximization. Since the optimal mechanisms are often impractical…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-11-06 Billy Jin , Thomas Kesselheim , Will Ma , Sahil Singla

Consider a monopolist selling $n$ items to an additive buyer whose item values are drawn from independent distributions $F_1,F_2,\ldots,F_n$ possibly having unbounded support. Unlike in the single-item case, it is well known that the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-04-13 Moshe Babaioff , Yannai A. Gonczarowski , Noam Nisan

Motivated by online retail, we consider the problem of selling one item (e.g., an ad slot) to two non-excludable buyers (say, a merchant and a brand). This problem captures, for example, situations where a merchant and a brand cooperatively…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-05-26 Gagan Aggarwal , Ashwinkumar Badanidiyuru , Paul Dütting , Federico Fusco

Economic institutions often influence market outcomes not by directly controlling sellers' menus, but by shaping the market composition sellers face. We study the welfare effects of this upstream choice in a monopoly screening model. An…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-05 Panagiotis Kyriazis

A designer offers vertically-differentiated positions to agents in the absence of transfers. Agents have private outside options and may reject their offers ex-post. The designer has preferences over the quantity of agents who accept each…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-02-12 Morteza Honarvar , Joanna Krysta , Eric Tang

We study allocation mechanisms that utilize costly signaling as a screening tool. A social planner aims to maximize social welfare, defined as the weighted sum of agents' utilities, while implementing a specific allocation rule. Within a…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-03-04 Yingkai Li , Xiaoyun Qiu

We consider the design of a revenue-optimal mechanism when two items are available to be sold to a single buyer whose valuation is uniformly distributed over an arbitrary rectangle $[c_1,c_1+b_1]\times[c_2,c_2+b_2]$ in the positive…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-03-06 D. Thirumulanathan , Rajesh Sundaresan , Y Narahari