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Markets increasingly accommodate large language models (LLMs) as autonomous decision-making agents. As this transition occurs, it becomes critical to evaluate how these agents behave relative to their human and task-specific statistical…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-01-27 Crystal Qian , Kehang Zhu , John Horton , Benjamin S. Manning , Vivian Tsai , James Wexler , Nithum Thain

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to provide instructions to many agents who interact with one another. Such shared reliance couples agents who appear to act independently: they may in fact be guided by a common model. This…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-08 Jonathan Shaki , Eden Hartman , Sarit Kraus , Yonatan Aumann

There is growing experimental evidence that $Q$-learning agents may learn to charge supracompetitive prices. We provide the first theoretical explanation for this behavior in infinite repeated games. Firms update their pricing policies…

General Economics · Economics 2025-05-30 Cristian Chica , Yinglong Guo , Gilad Lerman

We study auctions with severe bounds on the communication allowed: each bidder may only transmit t bits of information to the auctioneer. We consider both welfare- and profit-maximizing auctions under this communication restriction. For…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2011-10-13 L. Blumrosen , N. Nisan , I. Segal

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed to support human decision-making. This use of LLMs has concerning implications, especially when their prescriptions affect the welfare of others. To gauge how LLMs make social…

Computers and Society · Computer Science 2026-01-16 Saptarshi Pal , Abhishek Mallela , Christian Hilbe , Lenz Pracher , Chiyu Wei , Feng Fu , Santiago Schnell , Martin A Nowak

There has been substantial recent concern that pricing algorithms might learn to ``collude.'' Supra-competitive prices can emerge as a Nash equilibrium of repeated pricing games, in which sellers play strategies which threaten to punish…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-12-17 Eshwar Ram Arunachaleswaran , Natalie Collina , Sampath Kannan , Aaron Roth , Juba Ziani

Shilling is the use of artificial bids to make competition appear stronger and push prices upward. We study repeated first-price auctions in which shilling affects feedback but not allocation: the learner wins or loses against the real…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-05-22 Luigi Foscari , Matilde Tullii , Vianney Perchet

Existing auction mechanisms are vulnerable to bidder collusion, which substantially degrades revenue and non-colluder welfare. To design truthful mechanisms resilient to collusion, we introduce a novel approach that leverages a machine…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-11 Sukanya Kudva , Edward Dowling , Anil Aswani

Pricing decisions are increasingly made by AI. Thanks to their ability to train with live market data while making decisions on the fly, deep reinforcement learning algorithms are especially effective in taking such pricing decisions. In…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-07-06 Michael Schlechtinger , Damaris Kosack , Heiko Paulheim , Thomas Fetzer

A growing body of work explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) can be embedded in trading systems as agents that perceive market information, retrieve context, reason about decisions, emit tradable actions, and adapt under market…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-05-20 Yihan Xia , Panpan You , Taotao Wang , Fang Liu , Han Qi , Xiaoxiao Wu , Shengli Zhang

AI agents negotiate and transact in natural language with unfamiliar counterparts: a buyer bot facing an unknown seller, or a procurement assistant negotiating with a supplier. In such interactions, the counterpart's LLM, prompts, control…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-13 Eilam Shapira , Moshe Tennenholtz , Roi Reichart

In this paper, we study behavior of bidders in an experimental launch of a new advertising auction platform by Zillow, as Zillow switched from negotiated contracts to using auctions in several geographically isolated markets. A unique…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-04-03 Pooya Jalaly , Denis Nekipelov , Eva Tardos

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

We provide the first analysis of (deferred acceptance) clock auctions in the learning-augmented framework. These auctions satisfy a unique list of appealing properties, including obvious strategyproofness, transparency, and unconditional…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-11-06 Vasilis Gkatzelis , Daniel Schoepflin , Xizhi Tan

On ad exchange platforms the place for advertisement is sold through different kinds of auctions. However, it is not uncommon the situation where the seller repeatedly encounters only one buyer, thus the posted price auction degenerates…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-02-05 Nikita Kalinin

Practical mechanisms often limit agent reports to constrained formats like trades or orderings, potentially limiting the information agents can express. We propose a novel class of mechanisms that elicit agent reports in natural language…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-07-11 Nicolas Della Penna

We introduce robust learning equilibrium. The idea of learning equilibrium is that learning algorithms in multi-agent systems should themselves be in equilibrium rather than only lead to equilibrium. That is, learning equilibrium is immune…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-07-02 Itai Ashlagi , Dov Monderer , Moshe Tennenholtz

We study the design of mechanisms -- e.g., auctions -- when the designer does not control information flows between mechanism participants. A mechanism equilibrium is leakage-proof if no player conditions their actions on leaked…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-11-04 Samuel Häfner , Marek Pycia , Haoyuan Zeng

Traditional auction theory posits that bid value exhibits a positive correlation with the probability of securing the auctioned object in ascending auctions. However, under uncertainty and incomplete information, as is characteristic in…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-12-19 Dipankar Das

In financial trading, large language model (LLM)-based agents demonstrate significant potential. However, the high sensitivity to market noise undermines the performance of LLM-based trading systems. To address this limitation, we propose a…

Trading and Market Microstructure · Quantitative Finance 2025-08-19 Li Zhao , Rui Sun , Zuoyou Jiang , Bo Yang , Yuxiao Bai , Mengting Chen , Xinyang Wang , Jing Li , Zuo Bai