Fault tolerant mechanism design for general task allocation

We study a general task allocation problem, involving multiple agents that collaboratively accomplish tasks and where agents may fail to successfully complete the tasks assigned to them (known as execution uncertainty). The goal is to choose an allocation that maximises social welfare while taking their execution uncertainty into account (i.e., fault tolerant). To achieve this, we show that the post-execution verification (PEV)-based mechanism presented by Porter et al. (2008) is applicable if and only if agents' valuations are risk-neutral (i.e., the solution is almost universal). We then consider a more advanced setting where an agent's execution uncertainty is not completely predictable by the agent alone but aggregated from all agents' private opinions (known as trust). We show that PEV-based mechanism with trust is still applicable if and only if the trust aggregation is multilinear. Given this characterisation, we further demonstrate how this mechanism can be successfully applied in a real-world setting. Finally, we draw the parallels between our results and the literature of efficient mechanism design with general interdependent valuations

Exploring the limits of incentive compatibility and allocative efficiency in complex economic environments

In this dissertation auction formats are developed and discussed that focus on three specific economic environments. Regarding the impossibility results from mechanism design, the main task for the implementation of auction designs is to balance allocative efficiency and incentive compatibility – the main characteristics a mechanism should provide. Therefore, the dissertation investigates the limits of conceivable relaxations of allocative efficiency and incentive compatibility for complex settings such as double auctions, interdependent-valuation environments and electricity market designs. The overall aim is to carefully weigh up the advantages and disadvantages for either relaxing allocative efficiency or respectively incentive compatibility.:Preface … 7 1. Introduction … 8 1.1. Applications of auction design … 8 1.2. Optimal use of information in allocation processes … 12 1.3. Modeling non-cooperative situations … 14 1.4. Motivation for the dissertation … 16 2. An Incentive Compatible Double Auction for Multi-Unit Markets with Heterogeneous Goods … 21 2.1. Introduction into double auctions … 21 2.2. Setting of a multi-unit market with heterogeneous goods … 25 2.3. Concept of the Incentive Compatible Double Auction (ICDA) … 29 2.4. Definition of the allocation rule … 31 2.5. Creation of the price vector and the trading bundles … 37 2.6. Characteristics of the Incentive Compatible Double Auction (ICDA) … 40 2.7. Discussion of the properties of the Incentive Compatible Double Auction (ICDA) … 43 3. An Alternating-Price Auction for Interdependent-Valuation Environments … 46 3.1. Introduction into ex-post efficient auction design … 46 3.2. Setting of an interdependent-valuation environment … 50 3.3. Concept of the Alternating-Price Auction (APA) … 54 3.4. Characteristics of the Alternating-Price Auction (APA) 62 3.5. Discussion of the properties of the Alternating-Price Auction (APA) … 64 4. Facilitating Short-Term and Long-Term Efficiency with an Integrated Electricity Market Design … 66 4.1. Introduction into electricity market designs … 66 4.2. Setting of an electricity market … 72 4.3. Concept of the Integrated Electricity Market Design (IEMD) … 78 4.4. Characteristics of the Integrated Electricity Market Design (IEMD) … 88 4.5. Discussion of the properties of the Integrated Electricity Market Design (IEMD) … 91 5. Conclusion ... 94 Reference List … 9

Environmental analysis for application layer networks

Die zunehmende Vernetzung von Rechnern über das Internet lies die Vision von Application Layer Netzwerken aufkommen. Sie umfassen Overlay Netzwerke wie beispielsweise Peer-to-Peer Netzwerke und Grid Infrastrukturen unter Verwendung des TCP/IP Protokolls. Ihre gemeinsame Eigenschaft ist die redundante, verteilte Bereitstellung und der Zugang zu Daten-, Rechen- und Anwendungsdiensten, während sie die Heterogenität der Infrastruktur vor dem Nutzer verbergen. In dieser Arbeit werden die Anforderungen, die diese Netzwerke an ökonomische Allokationsmechanismen stellen, untersucht. Die Analyse erfolgt anhand eines Marktanalyseprozesses für einen zentralen Auktionsmechanismus und einen katallaktischen Markt. --Grid Computing

Modeling the Use of Nonrenewable Resources Using a Genetic Algorithm

This paper shows, how a genetic algorithm (GA) can be used to model an economic process: the interaction of profit-maximizing oil-exploration firms that compete with each other for a limited amount of oil. After a brief introduction to the concept of multi-agent-modeling in economics, a GA-based resource-economic model is developed. Several model runs based on different economic policy assumptions are presented and discussed in order to show how the GA-model can be used to gain insight into the dynamic properties of economic systems. The remainder outlines deficiencies of GA-based multi-agent approaches and sketches how the present model can be improved.

Mechanisms for Dynamic Setting with Restricted Allocations

Dynamic mechanism design is an important area of multiagent systems, and commonly used in resource allocation where the resources are time related or the agents exist dynamically. We focus on a multiagent model within which the agents stay, and the resources arrive and depart. The resources are interpreted as work or jobs and are called tasks. The allocation outcome space has a special restriction that every agent can only work on one resource at a time, because every agent has a finite computational capability in reality. We propose a dynamic mechanism and analyze its incentive properties; we show that the mechanism is incentive compatible. Empirically, our dynamic mechanism performs well and is able to achieve high economic efficiency, even outperforming standard approaches if the agents are concerned about future tasks. We also introduce a static mechanism under the setting of a restricted outcome space; it is proved that the static mechanism is incentive compatible, and its computational complexity is much less than that of the standard VCG mechanism

Environmental analysis for application layer networks

Die zunehmende Vernetzung von Rechners über das Internet lies die Vision von Application Layer Netzwerken aufkommen. Sie umfassen Overlay Netzwerke wie beispielsweise Peer-to-Peer Netzwerke und Grid Infrastrukturen unter Verwendung des TCP/IP Protokolls. Ihre gemeinsame Eigenschaft ist die redundante, verteilte Bereitstellung und der Zugang zu Daten-, Rechen- und Anwendungsdiensten, während sie die Heterogenität der Infrastruktur vor dem Nutzer verbergen. In dieser Arbeit werden die Anforderungen, die diese Netzwerke an ökonomische Allokationsmechanismen stellen, untersucht. Die Analyse erfolgt anhand eines Marktanalyseprozesses für einen zentralen Auktionsmechanismus und einen katallaktischen Markt