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Bounding the inefficiency of outcomes in generalized second price auctions

Author

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  • Caragiannis, Ioannis
  • Kaklamanis, Christos
  • Kanellopoulos, Panagiotis
  • Kyropoulou, Maria
  • Lucier, Brendan
  • Paes Leme, Renato
  • Tardos, Éva

Abstract

The Generalized Second Price (GSP) auction is the primary auction used for monetizing the use of the Internet. It is well-known that truthtelling is not a dominant strategy in this auction and that inefficient equilibria can arise. Edelman et al. (2007) [11] and Varian (2007) [36] show that an efficient equilibrium always exists in the full information setting. Their results, however, do not extend to the case with uncertainty, where efficient equilibria might not exist.

Suggested Citation

  • Caragiannis, Ioannis & Kaklamanis, Christos & Kanellopoulos, Panagiotis & Kyropoulou, Maria & Lucier, Brendan & Paes Leme, Renato & Tardos, Éva, 2015. "Bounding the inefficiency of outcomes in generalized second price auctions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 343-388.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:156:y:2015:i:c:p:343-388
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2014.04.010
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Benjamin Edelman & Michael Schwarz, 2010. "Optimal Auction Design and Equilibrium Selection in Sponsored Search Auctions," Harvard Business School Working Papers 10-054, Harvard Business School.
    2. Benjamin Edelman & Michael Ostrovsky & Michael Schwarz, 2007. "Internet Advertising and the Generalized Second-Price Auction: Selling Billions of Dollars Worth of Keywords," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 242-259, March.
    3. Philip J. Reny, 2011. "On the Existence of Monotone Pure‐Strategy Equilibria in Bayesian Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(2), pages 499-553, March.
    4. Fudenberg, Drew & Levine, David K., 1999. "Conditional Universal Consistency," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 29(1-2), pages 104-130, October.
    5. Sergiu Hart & Andreu Mas-Colell, 2013. "A Simple Adaptive Procedure Leading To Correlated Equilibrium," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Simple Adaptive Strategies From Regret-Matching to Uncoupled Dynamics, chapter 2, pages 17-46, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Varian, Hal R., 2007. "Position auctions," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1163-1178, December.
    7. Benjamin Edelman & Michael Schwarz, 2010. "Optimal Auction Design and Equilibrium Selection in Sponsored Search Auctions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 597-602, May.
    8. Foster, Dean P. & Vohra, Rakesh V., 1997. "Calibrated Learning and Correlated Equilibrium," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 21(1-2), pages 40-55, October.
    9. Gomes, Renato & Sweeney, Kane, 2014. "Bayes–Nash equilibria of the generalized second-price auction," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 421-437.
    10. Athey, Susan, 2001. "Single Crossing Properties and the Existence of Pure Strategy Equilibria in Games of Incomplete Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 861-889, July.
    11. Cremer, Jacques & McLean, Richard P, 1988. "Full Extraction of the Surplus in Bayesian and Dominant Strategy Auctions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1247-1257, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Patrick Hummel, 2018. "Hybrid mechanisms for Vickrey–Clarke–Groves and generalized second-price bids," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 47(1), pages 331-350, March.
    2. Paul Dütting & Thomas Kesselheim & Éva Tardos, 2021. "Algorithms as Mechanisms: The Price of Anarchy of Relax and Round," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 46(1), pages 317-335, February.
    3. Paul Dütting & Felix Fischer & David C. Parkes, 2019. "Expressiveness and Robustness of First-Price Position Auctions," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 196-211, February.
    4. Dütting, Paul & Fischer, Felix & Parkes, David C., 2019. "Expressiveness and robustness of first-price position auctions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 85877, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Blume, Lawrence & Easley, David & Kleinberg, Jon & Kleinberg, Robert & Tardos, Éva, 2015. "Introduction to computer science and economic theory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 1-13.
    6. Thomas W. L. Norman, 2021. "Evolutionary stability in the generalized second-price auction," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(1), pages 235-250, February.
    7. Amir Ban & Ron Lavi, 2021. "Option values in sequential auctions with time-varying valuations," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 50(1), pages 75-104, March.
    8. Alison Watts, 2018. "Generalized Second Price Auctions over a Network," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-11, September.
    9. Yoav Kolumbus & Joe Halpern & 'Eva Tardos, 2024. "Paying to Do Better: Games with Payments between Learning Agents," Papers 2405.20880, arXiv.org.
    10. Thành Nguyen & Karthik Kannan, 2021. "Welfare Implications in Intermediary Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(2), pages 378-393, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Auction design; Equilibrium analysis; Price of anarchy; Bayesian games; Generalized second price auction; Keyword auctions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

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