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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

In mechanism design it is typical to impose incentive compatibility and then derive an optimal mechanism subject to this constraint. By replacing the incentive compatibility requirement with the goal of minimizing expected ex post regret,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-08-07 Paul Duetting , Felix Fischer , Pitchayut Jirapinyo , John K. Lai , Benjamin Lubin , David C. Parkes

A fundamental assumption in classical mechanism design is that buyers are perfect optimizers. However, in practice, buyers may be limited by their computational capabilities or a lack of information, and may not be able to perfectly…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-03-28 Santiago Balseiro , Omar Besbes , Francisco Castro

We consider the problem of designing a revenue-optimal mechanism in the two-item, single-buyer, unit-demand setting when the buyer's valuations, $(z_1, z_2)$, are uniformly distributed in an arbitrary rectangle $[c,c+b_1]\times[c,c+b_2]$ in…

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

We study the problem of designing posted-price mechanisms in order to sell a single unit of a single item within a finite period of time. Motivated by real-world problems, such as, e.g., long-term rental of rooms and apartments, we assume…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-12-11 Giulia Romano , Gianluca Tartaglia , Alberto Marchesi , Nicola Gatti

We study a general model on reusable resource allocation under model uncertainty. A heterogeneous population of customers arrive at the decision maker's (DM's) platform sequentially. Upon observing a customer's type, the DM selects an…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-12-07 Xilin Zhang , Wang Chi Cheung

We consider the fundamental scenario where a single item is to be sold to one of two agents. Both agents draw their valuation for the item from the same probability distribution. However, only one of them submits a bid to the mechanism. The…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-08-26 Ioannis Caragiannis , Georgios Kalantzis

Aiming to overcome some of the limitations of worst-case analysis, the recently proposed framework of "algorithms with predictions" allows algorithms to be augmented with a (possibly erroneous) machine-learned prediction that they can use…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-03-28 Eric Balkanski , Vasilis Gkatzelis , Xizhi Tan , Cherlin Zhu

We study individual rational, Pareto optimal, and incentive compatible mechanisms for auctions with heterogeneous items and budget limits. For multi-dimensional valuations we show that there can be no deterministic mechanism with these…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-10-01 Paul Duetting , Monika Henzinger , Martin Starnberger

We investigate approximately optimal mechanisms in settings where bidders' utility functions are non-linear; specifically, convex, with respect to payments (such settings arise, for instance, in procurement auctions for energy). We provide…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-02-23 Amy Greenwald , Takehiro Oyakawa , Vasilis Syrgkanis

Time or money? That is a question! In this paper, we consider this dilemma in the pricing regime, in which we try to find the optimal pricing scheme for identical items with heterogenous time-sensitive buyers. We characterize the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-02-23 Zhengyang Liu , Liang Shan , Zihe Wang

We consider a fixed-price mechanism design setting where a seller sells one item via a social network, but the seller can only directly communicate with her neighbours initially. Each other node in the network is a potential buyer with a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-05-15 Tianyi Zhang , Dengji Zhao , Wen Zhang , Xuming He

Mechanism design is essentially reverse engineering of games and involves inducing a game among strategic agents in a way that the induced game satisfies a set of desired properties in an equilibrium of the game. Desirable properties for a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-03-06 V. Udaya Sankar , Vishisht Srihari Rao , Mayank Ratan Bhardwaj , Y. Narahari

We study the pricing problem faced by a firm that sells a large number of products, described via a wide range of features, to customers that arrive over time. Customers independently make purchasing decisions according to a general choice…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-01-03 Adel Javanmard , Hamid Nazerzadeh

This letter considers the design of an auction mechanism to sell the object of a seller when the buyers quantize their private value estimates regarding the object prior to communicating them to the seller. The designed auction mechanism…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2016-11-03 Nianxia Cao , Swastik Brahma , Pramod K. Varshney

We study a fair division problem with indivisible items, namely the computation of maximin share allocations. Given a set of $n$ players, the maximin share of a single player is the best she can guarantee to herself, if she would partition…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2016-05-16 Georgios Amanatidis , Georgios Birmpas , Evangelos Markakis

We study a multi-objective model on the allocation of reusable resources under model uncertainty. Heterogeneous customers arrive sequentially according to a latent stochastic process, request for certain amounts of resources, and occupy…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-02 Xilin Zhang , Wang Chi Cheung

Dynamic pricing of goods in a competitive environment to maximize revenue is a natural objective and has been a subject of research over the years. In this paper, we focus on a class of markets exhibiting the substitutes property with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2017-09-18 Paresh Nakhe

A decision maker is choosing between an active action (e.g., purchase a house, invest certain stock) and a passive action. The payoff of the active action depends on the buyer's private type and also an unknown state of nature. An…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-10-29 Shuze Liu , Weiran Shen , Haifeng Xu

We study robustly optimal mechanisms for selling multiple items. The seller maximizes revenue against a worst-case distribution of a buyer's valuations within a set of distributions, called an "ambiguity" set. We identify the exact forms of…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2024-08-26 Yeon-Koo Che , Weijie Zhong