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Informational limitations of ascending combinatorial auctions

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  • Blumrosen, Liad
  • Nisan, Noam

Abstract

We study the inherent limitations of natural widely-used classes of ascending combinatorial auctions. Specifically, we show that ascending combinatorial auctions that do not use both non-linear prices and personalized prices cannot achieve social efficiency with general bidder valuations. We also show that the loss of efficiency can be severe and that only a diminishing fraction of the social welfare may be captured. This justifies the added complexity in the auctions suggested by, e.g., Parkes and Ungar (2000) [29] and Ausubel and Milgrom (2002) [2].

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  • Blumrosen, Liad & Nisan, Noam, 2010. "Informational limitations of ascending combinatorial auctions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 1203-1223, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:145:y:2010:i:3:p:1203-1223
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Paul Milgrom, 2000. "Putting Auction Theory to Work: The Simultaneous Ascending Auction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(2), pages 245-272, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Oren Ben-Zwi & Ilan Newman, 2023. "No Ascending Auction can find Equilibrium for SubModular valuations," Papers 2312.00522, arXiv.org.
    2. Ben-Zwi, Oren, 2017. "Walrasian's characterization and a universal ascending auction," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 456-467.
    3. Babaioff, Moshe & Blumrosen, Liad & Schapira, Michael, 2013. "The communication burden of payment determination," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 153-167.
    4. Lavi, Ron & Oren, Sigal, 2012. "Side-communication yields efficiency of ascending auctions: The two-items case," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 439-456.
    5. Perennes, Patricia, 2014. "Use of combinatorial auctions in the railway industry: Can the “invisible hand” draw the railway timetable?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 175-187.
    6. Dughmi, Shaddin & Vondrák, Jan, 2015. "Limitations of randomized mechanisms for combinatorial auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 370-400.
    7. Paul Dütting & Vasilis Gkatzelis & Tim Roughgarden, 2017. "The Performance of Deferred-Acceptance Auctions," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 897-914, November.

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