222 research outputs found
Modelling Combinatorial Auctions in Linear Logic
We show that linear logic can serve as an expressive framework
in which to model a rich variety of combinatorial auction
mechanisms. Due to its resource-sensitive nature, linear
logic can easily represent bids in combinatorial auctions in
which goods may be sold in multiple units, and we show
how it naturally generalises several bidding languages familiar
from the literature. Moreover, the winner determination
problem, i.e., the problem of computing an allocation of
goods to bidders producing a certain amount of revenue for
the auctioneer, can be modelled as the problem of finding a
proof for a particular linear logic sequent
Combinatorial auctions for electronic business
Combinatorial auctions (CAs) have recently generated significant interest as an automated mechanism for buying and selling bundles of goods. They are proving to be extremely useful in numerous e-business applications such as e-selling, e-procurement, e-logistics, and B2B exchanges. In this article, we introduce combinatorial auctions and bring out important issues in the design of combinatorial auctions. We also highlight important contributions in current research in this area. This survey emphasizes combinatorial auctions as applied to electronic business situations
A graphical formalism for mixed multi-unit combinatorial auctions
Mixed multi-unit combinatorial auctions are auctions that allow participants to bid for bundles of goods to buy, for bundles of goods to sell, and for transformations of goods. The intuitive meaning of a bid for a transformation is that the bidder is offering to produce a set of output goods after having received a set of input goods. To solve such an auction the auctioneer has to choose a set of bids to accept and decide on a sequence in which to implement the associated transformations. Mixed auctions can potentially be employed for the automated assembly of supply chains of agents. However, mixed auctions can be effectively applied only if we can also ensure their computational feasibility without jeopardising optimality. To this end, we propose a graphical formalism, based on Petri nets, that facilitates the compact represention of both the search space and the solutions associated with the winner determination problem for mixed auctions. This approach allows us to dramatically reduce the number of decision variables required for solving a broad class of mixed auction winner determination problems. An additional major benefit of our graphical formalism is that it provides new ways to formally analyse the structural and behavioural properties of mixed auctions. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.This work was funded by the Jose Castillejo programme (JC2008-00337), IEA (TIN2006-15662-C02-01), OK (IST-4-027253-STP), eREP(EC-FP6-CIT5-28575) and Agreement Technologies (CONSOLIDER CSD2007-0022, INGENIO 2010)Peer Reviewe
Auctions and bidding: A guide for computer scientists
There is a veritable menagerie of auctions-single-dimensional, multi-dimensional, single-sided, double-sided, first-price, second-price, English, Dutch, Japanese, sealed-bid-and these have been extensively discussed and analyzed in the economics literature. The main purpose of this article is to survey this literature from a computer science perspective, primarily from the viewpoint of computer scientists who are interested in learning about auction theory, and to provide pointers into the economics literature for those who want a deeper technical understanding. In addition, since auctions are an increasingly important topic in computer science, we also look at work on auctions from the computer science literature. Overall, our aim is to identifying what both these bodies of work these tell us about creating electronic auctions. © 2011 ACM.This work was funded in part by HP under the “Always on” grant, by NSF IIS-0329037 “Tools and Techniques for Automated Mechanism Design”, and by IEA (TIN2006-15662-C02-01), OK (IST-4-027253-STP), eREP(EC-FP6-CIT5-28575) and Agreement Technologies (CONSOLIDER CSD2007-0022, INGENIO 2010).Peer Reviewe
Computational Mechanism Design: A Call to Arms
Game theory has developed powerful tools for analyzing decision making in systems with multiple autonomous actors. These tools, when tailored to computational settings, provide a foundation for building multiagent software systems. This tailoring gives rise to the field of computational mechanism design, which applies economic principles to computer systems design
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Auctions, Bidding and Exchange Design
The different auction types are outlined using a classification framework along six dimensions. The economic properties that are desired in the design of auction mechanisms and the complexities that arise in their implementation are discussed. Some of the most interesting designs from the literature are analyzed in detail to establish known results and to identify the emerging research directions.Engineering and Applied Science
Bundling Equilibrium in Combinatorial auctions
This paper analyzes individually-rational ex post equilibrium in the VC
(Vickrey-Clarke) combinatorial auctions. If is a family of bundles of
goods, the organizer may restrict the participants by requiring them to submit
their bids only for bundles in . The -VC combinatorial auctions
(multi-good auctions) obtained in this way are known to be
individually-rational truth-telling mechanisms. In contrast, this paper deals
with non-restricted VC auctions, in which the buyers restrict themselves to
bids on bundles in , because it is rational for them to do so. That is,
it may be that when the buyers report their valuation of the bundles in
, they are in an equilibrium. We fully characterize those that
induce individually rational equilibrium in every VC auction, and we refer to
the associated equilibrium as a bundling equilibrium. The number of bundles in
represents the communication complexity of the equilibrium. A special
case of bundling equilibrium is partition-based equilibrium, in which
is a field, that is, it is generated by a partition. We analyze the tradeoff
between communication complexity and economic efficiency of bundling
equilibrium, focusing in particular on partition-based equilibrium
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