Optimal Diffusion Auctions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Yao, Zheng, Shanshan, Zhao, Dengji
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Zhang, Yao
Zheng, Shanshan
Zhao, Dengji
author_facet Zhang, Yao
Zheng, Shanshan
Zhao, Dengji
contents Diffusion auction design is a new trend in mechanism design for which the main goal is to incentivize existing buyers to invite new buyers, who are their neighbors on a social network, to join an auction even though they are competitors. With more buyers, a diffusion auction will be able to give a more efficient allocation and receive higher revenue. Existing studies have proposed many interesting diffusion auctions to attract more buyers, but the seller's revenue is not optimized. Hence, in this study, we investigate what optimal revenue the seller can achieve by attracting more buyers. Different from the traditional setting, the revenue that can be achieved in a diffusion auction highly relies on the structure of the network. Hence, we focus on optimal auctions with given classes of underlying networks. We propose a class of mechanisms, where for any given structure, an optimal diffusion mechanism can be found. We point out that it implies an idea of "reserve structure". Moreover, we show that an optimal mechanism that handles all structures does not exist. Therefore, we also propose mechanisms that have bounded approximations of the optimal revenue in all structures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_02580
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal Diffusion Auctions
Zhang, Yao
Zheng, Shanshan
Zhao, Dengji
Computer Science and Game Theory
Diffusion auction design is a new trend in mechanism design for which the main goal is to incentivize existing buyers to invite new buyers, who are their neighbors on a social network, to join an auction even though they are competitors. With more buyers, a diffusion auction will be able to give a more efficient allocation and receive higher revenue. Existing studies have proposed many interesting diffusion auctions to attract more buyers, but the seller's revenue is not optimized. Hence, in this study, we investigate what optimal revenue the seller can achieve by attracting more buyers. Different from the traditional setting, the revenue that can be achieved in a diffusion auction highly relies on the structure of the network. Hence, we focus on optimal auctions with given classes of underlying networks. We propose a class of mechanisms, where for any given structure, an optimal diffusion mechanism can be found. We point out that it implies an idea of "reserve structure". Moreover, we show that an optimal mechanism that handles all structures does not exist. Therefore, we also propose mechanisms that have bounded approximations of the optimal revenue in all structures.
title Optimal Diffusion Auctions
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.02580